Certain companies whose stock prices has fallen rather a lot in the last few days

A friend sent me a email regarding the ruling on a legal matter between a certain software company and another software company in which a judge had ruled that the former company did not own the copyrights to a certain set of works that they claimed and that in fact the latter company still owned those copyrights.

As a result, it would seem that the former company's stock price has fallen rather a lot.

I have nothing to say about this matter. Really.

Software, Computing, and machines

Inspired by a nice rant on being asked to fix computer problems, I thought I'd add my 2 cents.

I have an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. I am not, however, a practicing engineer, or Professional Engineer, if you prefer. That said, I do know a fair amount about machines in general and computers in particular, and I've built the main machines that I use for personal/professional use for the last 10 years or so. I do so because it's fun, though I admit I am particular about some components. A computer is somewhere between a toaster and a nice stereo to me - it should be far simpler than it currently is, it should be reliable, and it should do what it's supposed to do well.

I have the better part of a master's degree in computer science; I've yet to finish and defend my thesis. I have been developing software for the last 25 years or so. In recent years I've gotten somewhat better at it, to the point that I often know what I'm doing or at least recognize when I am doing poorly.

Now, I admit that my home city is a bit of a technological backwater, a few exceptions aside, but still: stating that I am a software developer at a party or gathering of non-developers invariably produces the same response, something along the lines of, "Oh, I have a computer at home.... I just don't know how to do X", where X is something to do with email or document preparation or some use of some application on the machine. Or, better yet, the response is, "Can you fix Y?" where Y is some problem related to their ISP or network or mouse or anything really.

From which I've deduced that most of the people I meet have no idea what software development is as an activity or what that activity produces, and certainly no idea what sorts of process produces software. Which is maddening, really, because I've been doing this for 25 years and I want to ask them each time, "Where the %$*&&^ have you people been?"

So. You've read a book right? Not hard, really. Admittedly some are more difficult than others, and they have to be written in a language you understand, but the general procedure for reading a book of any size is largely the same. Start at one end, read the first page, read the next, repeat until the book is finished, close the book.

You've written a book, right? No, you likely haven't. You understand, though, that writing a book is harder than reading a book, in most cases. Yes, there are simple books. Still: writing takes a bit more creation, if you will, than the reading part.

Software development is like writing a book.

Software development is like writing a book for a computer to read, except the book is some crazy self-help book that tells the computer what to do and the computer has no choice but to do it.

I like that part of what I do. I do not like fixing computers for much the same reason that I am not an auto mechanic; it's not bad work, but it's not something I like or want to do unless it is absolutely necessary. And fixing applications, in as much as that is possible, isn't really enjoyable to me either. I use other people's software chiefly because it saves me time. Perhaps a lot of time, but, at the end of the day, it's all the same: it saves me time. So, and perhaps this is being uncharitable, but I don't like a lot of software that I have to use. On the otherhand, that's why I like open-source software; I like to be able to see how it works. That's a selfish concern, at one level, because most of the people that I meet could care less how software is made, even though I think they should care about someone's ability, perhaps not their own, to be able to see how the software they use is made. That's really a topic for a different conversation, though.

Ingmar Bergman

Those who have read my profile will observe that I have a twin sister. Let me set the record straight, then:

• Since we are of different genders, we are not identical. I've been asked that a lot, but the person who surprised me the most was an medical intern.
• We do not have some sort of psychic connection, despite my sister's comments to the contrary regarding awareness of pain, etc.
• We are not alike.

The last point is not a bad thing - it is simply a fact. I can't begin to cover the many ways in which we aren't alike. Today, however, I'll use another fact to illustrate this dissimilarity: my sister does not like Ingmar Bergman films. I seem to recall some episode during high school or early college when I picked up The Seventh Seal and somehow she ended up watching it. I think that choice led to a ban on what she called 'weird films' that I liked.

Today Ingmar Bergman died; he was 89. Meryn Rothstein's column in the NY Times quotes him as having said,

“I am very much aware of my own double self. The well-known one is very under control; everything is planned and very secure. The unknown one can be very unpleasant. I think this side is responsible for all the creative work — he is in touch with the child. He is not rational, he is impulsive and extremely emotional.”

I don't think this is a weird statement; I think it is the admission of an artist. I often like concrete art because I can sense the thought behind it, and I enjoy allegorical or metaphorical art because of the connections that are drawn in the work, but my perception of an artist is still of one who is irrational - one who is able to tap into a subconscious or other state of being that allows something visceral to be expressed. On the other hand, perhaps I want artists to be mystical because I don't want to understand the process too well.

A Pilgrim is not a tourist

I'm reading Conrad Rudolph's Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela. While the book has a somewhat secular tone, I do think he makes some good observations (where good is generally defined as 'things that I somewhat agree with but haven't reconciled completely'.) Here's a snippet that I find interesting:

A pilgrim is a not a tourist. You have a deeper experience precisely because you are not an observer in the traditional sense of the word. Something changes. You are not exactly the same person you were before. The locals look to you as a special experience, authentic. Despite the distance, you are a participator, an authenticator, even more than the locals themselves. You are part of the cultural landscape, part of the original reason for being and the history of many of the towns through which you pass. This is the pilgrimage route, and it is a deeply ingrained part of the identity of the towns and people along it. Yours is the experience of a fully reconciled alienation: the pilgrim at once the complete insider, the total outsider. This is why the pilgrimage is not a tour, not a vacation, not at all a trip from point A to point B, but a journey that its both an an experience and a metaphor rather than an event. This is why the pilgrimage must be done on foot, never on a bicycle; why you must stay in refugios, not in hotels, and why the journey should be long and hard. And this is why you then experience a place and culture in a way vastly different than as a traditional visitor or even as a local.

When reading 'pilgrim' literature, I often find it useful to re-read passages substituting 'Christian' for 'pilgrim', if only to see whether my opinion of the passage changes.

Desktop, Sweet Desktop

One of the great disadvantages of my most recent stint in grad school is that I had to switch my main home desktop machine over to Windows XP in order to run some of the tools that I used as part of my NSF fellowship work. So I made some backups of my existing system, bought a copy of XP (these guys tend to have pretty good pricing and you actually get what you pay for), and installed. Sigh.

I will say this: of all of the MS environments I've used, I like Windows XP Pro the most. My use of MS produced or influenced OSes includes

• Xenix on the main processor of the Intel Scientific Hypercube.
• Not bad, really.
  
• MS-DOS in various versions
• Adequate, I suppose, but I prefered CP/M (Xerox 820 model II), and even Apple's DOS on my ][e
  
• OS/2
• starting with 1.1 I think. I do recall that the TCP/IP stack up to around 1.3 was abysmal and crashed the entire machine.
• Windows 3.1
• Surely you're joking. I had used a Lisa and a NeXT Cube years before this.
  
• Windows 95
• Really. It's a joke, right? I mean, sure, it looks better, but ....
• Windows NT
• At this point I actually took notice of MS' OSes. Here was something that had legs. Legs with thick ankles, but legs.
  

XP was functional. I sorta knew where somethings were in XP. The truth of the matter is, though, that I had been running Linux (or GNU Linux, as some would prefer) for many years before that. So last weekend I bought a new hard drive, dug out my backups, downloaded a copy of Ubuntu, and re-took my desktop from the capitalistic forces that would seek to destroy... erm, nevermind. I re-established a desktop that I enjoy and can be productive on. Or at least that's the hope. I'm still remembering things, some in my fingers and some in my head.

Famous for the back of his head

Maybe one day that will be my epitaph, when Sybil MacBeth is famous for her book and potential participants view her website and see the photo of past workshop.

The Seven Deadly Sins: Envy

I've met a fair number of people I admire. I'm even related to a few of them. :-) I haven't met that many people that I envy, though. Don't get me wrong - I know plenty of people who are more talented, smart, wise, witty, etc., etc., etc., but at the end of the day I can't say I have a bad life at all. Pretty good, actually. Every once in a while, though, I meet someone who is willing to pursue their dream so faithfully and fearlessly that I'm awestruck and, well, envious.

World, meet Rebekah Scott. Rebekah, readers. Rebekah and her husband pulled up stakes and moved to Spain, right along the Camino Frances in Moratinos, Palencial, Spain. Read her blog sometime for a story of someone who has realized that life is too important not to do some living.

Resurfacing

It seems like almost every blog that I have ever read has at least one entry wherein the writer says, "Sorry I haven't written lately. I've been really busy."

Well, I've been really busy, but today was a turning point. On Monday, the Good Lord willin' and the Creek don't rise(?), one of my clients will 'go live' with a new software system.

School of the Pilgrim

My copy of Brett's new book, School of the Pilgrim: An Alternative Path to Christian Growth, showed up yesterday. I wrote him a quick note to which he replied, "You know most of the stories in the book. Hopefully the framework BEHIND the pilgrimage makes sense."

Even in a citation in the book I've already found a comment I like very much: "Huston Smith writes that since we are embodied souls, we have to act out our faith with our bodies as well as our minds and spirits."

I still struggle with my personal definition of a pilgrimage, and I don't yet completely understand Brett's thesis of the Christian life as pilgrimage, but I do believe that Brett's core notions are good ones. To say that you are a pilgrim is to say that you are seeking God.

2nd Concert of the Season

Well I am late posting about it, but we did have our second concert of the season on June 2nd. We sang two pieces from our repertoire

• Spaseniye Sodelal, by Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov and
• Song of Peace by Vincent Persichetti

I thought we did well on both pieces, but once again we evoked very strong comments from the audience regarding the Chesnokov.

Afterwards, Mike R (another 2nd tenor), my wife and I walked to a nearby cafe to have a celebratory cocktail and to discuss the performance. I think we are doing well on the Chesnokov because we are singing in Russian, not in spite of it. That is, since almost all of us are singing phonetically, I think we are focusing heavily on the dynamics of the individual syllables, rather than focusing on how we should sing them rather than how we normally say them. Since we know only one pronunciation, we skip all the vowel complexity and concentrating on making good sounds.

Or at least that's my working theory.

1st Concert of the Season

Today was a great day for singing. The group did two of our new works for the 2007 season:

• Spaseniye Sodelal, by Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov, and
  


• The Last Words of David by Randall Thompson

We sang the former in Russian; luckily, one of our 2nd Tenors got his PhD in Russian, so he taught us how to pronounce the text, which translates to "Salvation is created in the midst of the earth, O God. Alleluia." What I didn't know about the piece until a little while ago is that:

"When communism fell years after his death, and the Russian Orthodox church opened its doors again, Chesnokov's Salvation is Created - a piece he had never heard performed himself - became the unofficial anthem of the church. Salvation is Created is one in a cycle of ten Communion Hymns, Op. 25, and is based on a cantus firmus chant taken from Obihod notnago peniya, the codex that contained the major musical components of the Russian Orthodox liturgical repertoire." [1]

The latter piece is based on 2 Samuel 23:3-4. It is a very dramatic piece with a very forceful entrance. The initial verse says, "He that ruleth over [all] must be just."

Despite this being Memorial Day weekend, we had a good turnout and were well covered in all the voices, and I think we did an excellent job, especially on the Thompson.

[1] Wikipedia contributors, "Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pavel_Grigorievich_Chesnokov&oldid=84721467 (accessed May 28, 2007)

Memphis in May meets Camino Frances

Last night my wife and and several other couples made our way down to Joysmith Gallery in downtown Memphis to catch an art exhibit featuring the Camino de Santiago. The camino - caminos, really, since there are multiple routes, are a set of pilgrimage routes to the city of Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. My wife and I undertook a partial camino in May of 2004; my friends Eric & Joan walked the entire Camino Frances (480 miles) that same year.

The exhibit is a touring display of photos and paintings by American pilgrims. The tour started at The College of William & Mary; Memphis is the 2nd exhibition. Last night all the attendees were honored to have the curator of the collection, George Greenia, on hand to describe the Camino and answer questions. George is a former Franciscan monk who now teaches in the Medieval and Renaissance Studies department at W&M, where he leads groups of students on pilgrimage. He also helps coordinate the Annual Gathering of Pilgrims when it meets in Williamsburg, VA. and edits the American Pilgrim magazine.

It was great to talk to a fellow pilgrim, especially a more experienced one. My friend Eric got to talk to him about his own Fulbright studies in Belgium. George invoked Goethe's statement that 'the Camino created Europe', which appeared to please Joan. My wife is going to see about arranging another Memphis visit for George to speak at our church.

Grayston Ives' Missa Brevis

Today was Grayston Ives' Missa Brevis, including yours truly in a double quartet for the Agnus Dei. Very nice. It was only after performing the piece that I learned of Ives' participation in the King's Singers.

Ghosts of Spain

I've been reading Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett. I wouldn't call it a novel; it's more a set of linked essays that discuss post-Franco Spain, and even then not so much what happened as what has not happened. From what I've read so far, the author feels that a real political integration of opposing forces still hasn't taken place - that the Spanish approach to much of the Franco-era history has been to forget much of what happened. Of course, we're talking about a book written by a British ex-pat journalist who I think wants to see something along the lines of South African reconciliation tribunals, and who wonders aloud how Spanish judges can pursue Pinochet while ignoring their own issues.

Good reading so far. I admit that I am almost entirely ignorant of recent Spanish history.* I mean, I knew a little of Franco and the larger divisions within Spain, but not why such divisions exist (even still, hence the book). I imagine I need something even more recent to cover the current social scene.

* I still l recall the first time I heard of Franco. Unfortunately, I was in my early teens. At the time there was a fairly famous line regularly repeated by Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live: "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead." I had no idea what that meant, though I did find the idea of someone "still dead" pretty funny on the face of it.

Life as Pilgrimage

Today my wife and I traveled down to Canton, MS to meet Brett Webb-Mitchell, author of several books including Follow Me and the newly published School of the Pilgrim: An Alternative Path to Christian Growth, and founder of The School of the Pilgrim. Brett was actually meeting with Rev. Rob Hill and several members of Broadmeadow United Methodist Church. While I don't want to steal any of Brett's thunder, I will say that Brett is a man who gets pilgrimage - as a physical act, but also as the subject of metaphor of Christian living, in a way that I haven't seen expressed before.

The Tale of the Pirate

Once there was a pirate. Being a pirate, he loved treasure. In fact, the only thing he liked better than treasure was buried treasure. He sailed the seven seas searching for buried treasure. He found treasure beneath the waves. He found treasure on distant islands. He found treasure in the many ports that he called home. The pirate found more treasure than any pirate alive, but he still wasn't satisfied. So one day he started hiding his own treasure. He buried treasure here, there and everywhere. He even buried treasure on his own ship! The other pirates said, "Arrrr, there be a fine pirate who be willing to share his booty!"

But then a funny thing happened: the pirate started finding his own treasure and re-claiming it as his own. Now that is a funny thing for a pirate to do, with so much treasure in the world.


I leave it to my friends to find the moral behind this tale.

Men's Retreat, Party, and the Photo Shoot

It has been a busy weekend, starting Friday afternoon. The men's group at my church held a retreat at an event center not far from a great caching park. The spiritual leader of the weekend was John Baker, who is now in Alexandria, VA, but was at my church when I first starting attending. [ He also used to own a car repair shop that is still open and still called by the original name - Baker Auto. ] It was a great weekend for all, but especially for me, I think, because one of the greatest disadvantages to being in a church choir is that you don't get a chance to meet a lot of the other folks in church, in spite of the fact that you're often there more often (or at least more consistently) than many of the members. So I enjoyed actually meeting a lot of familiar faces.

Today (Sunday) was also the day for the 'other' singing group that I'm in. We elected to have a professional photographer shoot our promotional photo that we will use in our advertisements and other marketing collateral. I am curious as to how the photos will turn out; we certainly did spent quite a bit of time arranging the members and selecting a variety of locations.

After the shoot we gathered at the director's house for a potluck supper that ended up being quite a feast. Hopefully this (sans the photo shoot) will become a 5th Sunday tradition!

GeoGreeting

BDD posted a link to a fun url - GeoGreeting. It's a yet another site that allows you construct personalized messages, but in this case the letters are actually overhead shots of buildings.

Here's an example.

My Personal Blog

For those of you reading along at home: this is my personal blog. Since I am independent consultant, I don't need to say this, but the opinions expressed herein are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employers.

Since it is my personal blog, I feel entitled to write whatever I want. In fact, that's the only reason that this blog exists: to allow me a public forum in which to state whatever I want to say. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous.

By extension, I have no qualms about moderating any comments left on this blog (though I have yet to do so). Visitors have no first amendment rights here. If you have something to say, say it, but if I don't like it, tough. Start your own blog and say whatever you want to say there if you have a strong desire to make yourself heard. It's cheap and easy.

It is only in the Commons, such as community forums and the like, that anyone should have any expectation of privilege.

Geocaching & People

I am a geocacher. To those of you unfamiliar with the term, suffice it to say that I use billion-dollar military satellite technology to find tupperware containers hidden in the woods. Hey, everybody needs a hobby. I belong to several geocaching organizations, including the Geocachers Of West Tennessee, founded by my friend Steve Spencer aka spencersb and the Jackson Area Geocachers, founded by my friend Damon Mays, aka BigDaddyD.

There is some tension between the two organizations, which is strange when you consider that belonging to a geocaching organization is optional and of little real value. Really, there appears to be some tension/dislike/animosity/hate between specific individuals in the two organizations. The situation is not pleasant, and occasionally it is difficult, especially when you hear or read people from one side say ugly things about the other. All of which is to say that I've determined that my geocaching experience, at least as it regards to cachers, is a lot like my work experience, as it regards to workers. To wit:

1. There are people that I like that I like to work with.
   
2. There are people that I do not like that I like to work with.
3. There are people that I like that I do not like to work with.
4. There are people that I do not like that I do not like to work with.
   

Substitute geocache for work and the axioms hold. Some of my feelings are driven by differences in opinion on what geocaching means. The first and the fourth are obvious, but the second and the third have made work - and geocaching - more interesting. I've had co-workers who were interesting, kind, good-hearted people, but who were completely inept in their jobs. I've had co-workers who were skilled professionals, but unethical, callous, and rude.

For those who haven't geocached, trust me when I say that there is quite a variety of opinions about the trivia of geocaching: what it means to claim the finding of a geocache, what is the intent of placing a geocache, where should they be placed, even what size container is appropriate. Ultimately these are petty distinctions, though. Geocaching is voluntary, and the specifics of hiding and searching for geocaches enjoys remarkable liberty. These differences aren't what are driving the the GOWT vs. JAG feud, though. I think the reasons for those fights are more universal and rooted in fear, mistrust, greed, and lust.