How Geeks Will Inherit the Earth

I've been listening to the Creating Prosperity podcast since late last year. It's a serialized audio book version of "Elegant Technology" by Jonathan Larson.

The first couple of chapters were interesting enough that I checked out the audio book version of Thorstein Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class" from the local library. And I was able to finish Veblen's book just before Christmas, and had some interesting conversations about it with friends and family after Christmas dinner.

Just after New Year's when I listened to the podcast of Elegant Technology: Chapter Four "The Theory of the Industrial Class". The ideas in this chapter lead me to some very interesting insights into the driving forces behind the Open Source Software and related movements and their likely long term repercussions.

• The "producer class", a.k.a. the geeks, will steadily gain economic and political power by routing around anything or anyone that gets in the way using open source tools and techniques, rather then through direct conflict or political action.
  
• As more and more technologies become open source, the pace of innovation will increase. Probably geometrically.
• Companies that hold and try to monopolize technology patents will find that open source research develops multiple technologies that render their patents obsolete and valueless.
  
• Similar open culture processes will happen with content creators and copyrights, because given a choice buyers will choose open content that they can use when, where and how they want, and they're even willing to pay extra for that privilege.
  
• At some point open innovation and content development will occur faster then patents and copyrights can be enforced by the legal system. When this happens most patents and copyrights will become pointless.
  
• The current system of intellectual property as incentive to innovation will breakdown and the businesses that depend on it must adapt or die. (Most will go bankrupt trying to defend useless patents and copyrights.)
• Businesses and individuals that facilitate collaboration and the free exchange of information will prosper.
  
• Mass market industrial manufacturing will rapidly decline and be replaced by global systems of distributed custom manufacturing of openly designed products.
  

The podcast and an online version of Creating Prosperity are available on the Elegant Technology...online web site. Be warned that the podcast is very dry and will likely put you to sleep, unless you're really interested in the subject matter and know some history of economics.

The Sad State of American Religon

May God save us from the ignorance and hypocrisy of fundamentalism in all it's forms.  Especially when espoused by our family, friends, neighbors or national leaders. 

Carol Sayles wrote:

Date:	I did a cut 'n paste
Subject:	Subject: THIS IS REALLY A SAD SITUATION !!!!!!!
To:

 

My son Tom, (and E-Mail Friends)

   What do you think of this one? It came to me from old friends from Richwoods my high school.

Mom / Carol

 

 THIS IS REALLY A SAD SITUATION !!!!!!!

Some of you may be wondering what Judge Roy Moore has been doing since he was removed from the bench for refusing to remove the 10 Commandments from his courtroom wall.  Please read the poem he wrote below.  God bless, Alabama Judge Being Sued Good Poem from Alabama judge sued by ACLU    The following is a poem written by Judge Roy Moore from Alabama.  Judge Moore was sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom foyer.  He has been stripped of his judgeship and now they are trying to strip his right to practice law in Alabama.  The judge's poem sums it up quite well.   America the Beautiful, or so you used to be. Land of the Pilgrims' pride; I'm glad they'll never see. Babies piled in dumpsters, Abortion on demand, Oh, sweet land of liberty; your house is on the sand. Our children wander aimlessly poisoned by cocaine, Choosing to indulge their lusts, when God has said abstain. From sea to shining sea, our Nation turns away From the teaching of God's love and a need to always pray. We've kept God in our temples, how callous we have grown. When earth is but His footstool, and Heaven is His throne. We've voted in a government that's rotting at the core, Appointing Godless Judges who throw reason out the door, Too soft to place a killer in a well deserved tomb, But brave enough to kill a baby before he leaves the womb. You think that God's not angry, that our land's a moral slum? How much longer will He wait before His judgment comes? How are we to face our God, from Whom we cannot hide? What then is left for us to do, but stem this evil tide? If we who are His children, will humbly turn and pray; Seek His holy face and mend our evil way: Then God will hear from Heaven and forgive us of our sins, He'll heal our sickly land and those who live within. But, America the Beautiful, if you don't - then you will see, A sad but Holy God withdraw His hand from Thee. ~Judge Roy Moore Pass this on and let's lift Judge Moore up in prayer. He has stood firm and needs our support. IN GOD WE TRUST!

 

God Bless America And God Bless Our Troops

---

Patriotic Action = Terrorist Support

I do not wish to sign this Pledge of Allegiance petition for the following reasons:

1. The petition seems to have been forwarded in a geometrically expanding progression and such use of the Internet is harmful. If this petition is forward by each successive signer to only two others that then sign and forward it, the White House will be swamped with more then 10 to the 600th power e-mail messages. If successful this would most certainly cripple the White House e-mail servers (and much of the Internet along with it). So it is quite possible that this petition was started by terrorists as a denial of service attack and that signing and forwarding it is helping the “evil doers”.
2. Unlike most tyrants, the President of the United States does not and should not have the power to compel school children and teachers to recite a pledge of allegiance to any icon, document or person. Thus the petition is addressed to the wrong branch of the Government, it should be addressed to Congress.
3. The current version of the Pledge of Allegiance containing the phrase "under God", the version most likely to be supported by our current president, is patently in violation of the First Amendment, which states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...”
   Assuming that a Pledge of Allegiance is appropriate in a modern democracy, the petition should ask congress to repeal the illegal change it enacted at the bequest of a Catholic fraternal organization back in 1954.
4. The Pledge of Allegiance is a nationalistic oath written by socialists at the end of the 19th century. I am very wary of any combination of nationalism and socialism as this combination lead to very dangerous dictatorships in twenty century Europe.
5. Traditionally public school education in our country has been regulated by local governments, specifically local school boards.  Thus the federal government, to the greatest extent possible, should not interfere in local decisions, except when necessary to protect constitutional, civil and humanitarian rights.
6. Our current educational system is already overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge that we need to teach our children. So I believe that it is inappropriate for our public schools to dedicate scarce time out of the already lengthly school day to nationalistic and/or religious ceremony. (Such activities may be appropriate in private schools.
7. I think that it is inappropriate to ask children below the age of maturity to recite an oath to icons and/or institution that they may or may not wish to actively support later in their life.

I do believe that the recitation of a oath to uphold the Constitution is an appropriate opening for legislative and judicial sessions as well as during the instillation of officers of the executive branches of government.

I also believe that recitation of prayers and oaths of Allegiance by private organizations at their public events is also appropriate and the right to do so should be protected as one of the most sacred freedoms. Any government or official who seeks to unduly limit these sacred freedoms should be declared a tyrant and opposed, nonviolently if possible, and with force if necessary. Those who risk and lay down their lives to protect these freedoms deserve our utmost respect, unending gratitude and unwavering support.

Carol Sayles <teacher_carol@yahoo.com> wrote:

PLEASE SIGN         PETITION FOR PRES. BUSH PETITION TO REINSTATE PLEDGE TO THE FLAG IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 1. Frankie Dorsett 2. Marilyn Hampton 3. Tommy Hampton ... 1985 Carol Sayles - Glendale, CA   If  you don't forward the petition and just stop it, we will lose all these names. If you do not want to sign it, please forward it to everyone you know. Thank you!!! To add your name, click on "forward" or "Reply" and enter ADDs. You will be able to add your name at the bottom of the list and then forward it to your friends. THE 2,000TH PERSON SEND IT ON TO THE FOLLOWING E-MAIL ADDRESS: President@WhiteHouse.gov

 

God Bless America And God Bless Our Troops

RSS Mirror Tags / Namespace

I've got most of a formal spec for a new namespace that implements the "mirror" tags for RSS enclosures. The document is currently posted here.

I'm still looking for suggestions on how to specify the "addMirror" tag. Unless someone steps up and says it should be like this, then I'll probably end up playing around with some experimental XML-RPC implementations to see what works.

Idea: Equestrian Training Pedometer

I don't know if this device exists or not, but I'd like an electronic gadget that clips to a horses bridle or halter and records a horse's activity levels. At the end of a week a trainer could download the data via a USB connection or memory card and track the amount of walk, trot, canter, etc.

Specifically I'd like to put one of these on Cali's bridle so I can track how much time she spends during lessons, practice and training sessions centering and trotting.

Such a device could also be used to gauge the activity level of horses during turnout periods, i.e. the amount of time spent grazing, sleeping and frolicking.

Slashdot | Women Now Outnumber Men Online

Interesting bit of news.

Slashdot | Women Now Outnumber Men Online

Made It Home

Got home about 10:00 pm and found that the internet
access is down. More later when its fixed.

Holidays with Family

I made it down to SoCal with out incident. I got from the ExtraCar lot through check-in and security in about 45 minutes. The flight from Sea-Tac to Burbank was full but uneventful.

I spent most of my first day down here shopping for gifts and fixing my parents computers. It took several hours but I finally gave up and had to recover (reinstall) windows and all the drivers (but not the programs) on my mother's laptop. I also installed firefox on her laptop and on my folks main desktop computer.

After going out to dinner with my parents and my grandmother this evening, I spent a couple of hours introducing my Dad to podcasts. The biggest difficulty he seemed to run into was the inconsistency in UI of the various directories and in the podcasters' site lay out. We downloaded several sample podcasts and burned them on to CD-Rs for him to listen to on his way back to San Jose next week.

Tomorrow we (my folks and I ) drive from Glendale out to my brother's place in Norco. There we'll have a big family dinner and open presents. Should be a good party and a fun time with my niece, nephews and their cousins.

Re: Re: Idea: "mirror" Tags for RSS Enclosures

Thanks for the feedback. Though nobody has yet answered the questions I
posed.

> 1. How many podcatchers would this likely break? i.e. They would not
> ignore the new tags if they didn't support them?
> 2. Who else should I pitch this idea to and where else should this
> idea get discussed?

At this point the "mirror" tags are just an idea. If I still think it's
worth some time and effort after Christmas, I'll flesh out a full spec,
including a valid and commented XML Schema file. [I find schema files
easier to read and there are tools to convert them to DTDs.]

I had somewhat different purposes in mind for each of the three tags.

The main purpose for the "mirror:location" tag is to enable a simple
fall over and/or bandwidth improvement mechanism. This tag is simply a
discovery method that gives the podcatcher and/or user choices in where
to download from in much the same way that Source Forge uses mirrors.
The primary source, i.e. the one given in the enclosure tag itself, may
not be the most efficient for every user. Addressing this problem has
been the traditional function of mirrors since the early days of the
Internet. It's not meant to replace round-robin load balancing.

The "mirror:format" tag is intended to cut down on the number of
separate feeds that need to be maintained and processed. It came out of
some inefficiencies that the FeedMesh guys were complaining about
regarding the same content showing up in multiple feeds with different
UIDs. So the intent is to more closely connect the the content to the
UID. And yes to make use of "mirror:format" tags, the podcatchers have
to allow the user to prioritize format preferences.

Personally I want my podcatcher to download multiple formats and put
them in different places: low-res audio on my 256mb iRiver; high-res
audio on my desktop; low res-video on my video iPod; and HD video on my
DVR. Then when I've consumed the content in one of those locations, my
podcatcher should delete or archive the content from all those
locations. I think that having multiple formats associated with a
single UID in a single feed makes this easier.

Finally the intent of the "mirror:addMirror" tag if to allow mirroring
of content to be collaborative. For example, if I wanted to promote a
new video co-dec, I could offer to trans code a popular video cast and
provide a mirror in the new format without hijacking the main feed.
Another example might be a service that protects against the
slashdot/DSC effect by mirroring the media file as soon as it is
published expecting little or no traffic unless the primary source
becomes unavailable or too slow.

I've done almost no work with XML-RPC I and am still trying to get my
head around exactly how to spec the "mirror:addMirror" tag. Suggestions
welcome.

TTFN
Tom Sayles

> Please forgive the cross-posting and please don't flame me if this subject got hashed out months ago.
>
> I've been kicking around ideas for how to solve some of the bandwidth issues. What I've come up with is proposing yet another name space extension to RSS. Specifically to add /mirror:format, mirror:location/ and /mirror:addMirror/ tags as sub-elements of the enclosure tag. More info and a quick/dirty example are in my blog post at:
>
> http://www.soot-n-smoke.com/tsayles/2005/12/idea-mirror-tags-for-rss-enclosures.html
>
> So I have a couple of questions:
>
> 1. How many podcatchers would this likely break? i.e. They would not
> ignore the new tags if they didn't support them?
> 2. Who else should I pitch this idea to and where else should this
> idea get discussed?
>
> TTFN
> Tom Sayles
>
>

Idea: "mirror" Tags for RSS Enclosures

This idea proposes a new set of sub elements of the RSS Enclosure Tag to identify alternate locations and formats for an enclosed item. Since the RSS specification is basicly frozen the way to implement this would be through a new name space that defines these tags. I'm not an expert on writing XML specifications, so any suggestions or assistance would be appreciated.
esnecialy
The new tags are all sub elements of the RSS Enclosure tag and would include:

• mirror:format
• mirror:location
• mirror:addMirror

What I'm advocating would look something like the this.

If you have any comments please post or e-mail them.

Lincat coming along

I've made some really good progress with my Linux box in recent days.

I tripled the amount of RAM from 128MB to 384MB and it has made a big difference. I've got the Apache2 web server up and running with php5 and Pear. (This is probably the programming environment I want to be working with in my next job.) I've even gotten IPV6 and network printing up and running.

I'm still working on replicating my user data (My Documents, My Pictures, etc.) so that I have redundant auto-updating copies on both computers. I'm about 30% of the way there, as I can access the files from my Windows machine and work with them on my Linux box.

Snow

Snow
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Had a couple of inches of snow last night in Woodinville. Had more up in Snoqualmie where I work, but didn't have my camera.

We've had the snow level creeping down the mountain sides for a couple of weeks now.

Guess it must be winter.

Meta Dreaming and Sleeping

Is meta dreaming and sleeping (dreams about dreaming and sleeping) a sign of deep intellectual self knowledge or just a sign that you need more sleep?

Upgraded to Ubuntu

After several weeks / months of hacking around with Debian GNU/Linux trying to get my sound card working, I finally gave up and tried a Debian derivative called Ubuntu. I first downloaded a "live CD" version that allowed me to try Ubuntu without installing it. When Ubuntu booted off the "live CD" it recognized the sound card and correctly configured the network connection. So I downloaded the install CD, wiped out my previous Debian GNU/Linux and installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu version 5.10 "Breezy Badger".
It took longer that the 25 minutes they claimed, but it was still much faster then a full reinstall of Windows, especially since OpenOffice and Firefox are included in the Ubuntu dirtro.

Roast Turkey

Roast Turkey
Originally uploaded by TSayles.

Cooked roast turkey for myself and my housemates. Also made Tom safe cranberry sauce, peas & pearl onions, mashed potatoes and fresh pineapple. Tried gravy, but the consistency wasn't quite right. Guess I still need more practice with gravy. More photos on my Flicker page.

Idea: Potlucks4Progress, Social Networking to Solve Social Problems

Today I got around to listening to the November 20th edition of the Chris Pirillo show where Ponzi was interviewing Andru Edwards, about the recent inaugural Mind Camp. Near the end of the interview it occurred to me that many of the participants at this and similar events, like Gnomedex and the Portable Media Expo, would probably enjoy getting together more frequently even if it was on a smaller scale.
Thinking of my own geeky friends, one thing many of them have in common is that the like to cook and/or eat gourmet food, so we occasionally gather for potlucks. This lead me into thoughts about combining regular gatherings of intellectuals for shared food with some collaborative problem solving around particular topics.
The resulting fusion is an idea I call Potlucks4Progress, Social Networking to Solve Social Problems. What I have in mind is a website, probably Potlucks4Progress.com, where registered users can:

• Suggest problems that social networks of smart folks might solve that would include
• Limited length problem statement
• Links to supporting documents, optional
• Closing date for judged awards, optional
• Offer prize(s) for judged awards, optional
• invitation(s) to judge solutions, optional
• organize a potluck, by
  
• inviting a just few or whole bunch of friends
• mapping location(s) of potluck(s)
• RSVP to an invitation
• Suggest / assign dish(es) to be brought
• Announce what dish is being / was brought
  
• Submit solution / potluck reports, including
• limited length summary of solution(s) proposed
• links to supporting documentation, optional
  
• links to pictures from potluck, optional
• list of guests attending, optional
• list of dishes served, optional
• Nominate proposed solutions for various awards including:
• best solution
• most practical solution
• most humorous solution
• most creative solution
• most tantalizing menu
  
• most humorous menu
• best photo
• most humorous photo
• most diverse guest list
  
• other user defined awards
  
• Sponsor prizes to be associated with various awards
• Vote to confer unjudged awards to specific proposed solutions

At this site anonymous users could:

• Browse problem statements and solution summary reports
• Subscribe to RSS feeds of newly suggested problems
• Subscribe to RSS feeds of proposed solutions
  
• Browse information about Potlucks4Progress.com

I'd like this to be a self supporting website taking in revenue from ads for gourmet food, cooking and hospitality supplies. Perhaps with a major sponsorship or two from a recipe sites or cooking supply chain, it might even be able to support me, as I'd love to quite my day job.
As always if you're interested in working on this or otherwise supporting the effort, please drop me an e-mail.

Emergency Water Supply for People and Horses

Ed & Laura --

The amount of water a horse needs depends on the horse, what they're eating and how hard they're working. But five to fifteen gallons a day is typical. You can probably measure what your horses drink by checking the water meter just before you leave and just after you get back from a weekend away.

Assuming 20 gal/day for the two horses and other animals, and 2 gal/day/person, you're looking at a minimum of 420 gal or about 1600 liters or a little over 2 cubic yards of water to last two weeks.

A third or more of your 140 gallons for five people are probably in your hot water heater. You just have to remember to protect it in the event of a major earthquake. There's also water in your toilet tanks, again if you protect it after a quake.

If any of your neighbors' pools survive you can use that water for both humans and livestock, but you'll probably want to remove the chlorine first. Easiest way is to pass the water through a carbon filter, though you can also use aeration or chemical precipitation or boiling. Again this is a supply that may need to be protected in the immediate aftermath of a major quake. Fast action with a big sheet of plastic might save several hundred gallons of water for later use.

In a disaster situation you can make carbon filters with rinsed charcoal, probably from wood you burn rather than out of a bag. The effectiveness of carbon filters is dependent on chemical reactions so it's proportional to surface area and contact time. Depending on the source of water, carbon filters should generally be used in conjunction with particulate filtration and disinfection. Household bleach, without any laundry additives, is a very good water disinfectant so you want to have plenty in your earthquake supplies.

If you want to be self sufficient and prepared for the worst, you should probably look into getting one of those shipping pallet tanks. They typically have a nice steel cage that protects the tank. You might also look into lighting it with a mercury vapor lamp so the UV will keep stuff from growing in it. If you plumb it in right, you can probably flush the tank a couple of times a year with water you're now putting on your lawn. You also want to make sure that tank's valves are closed most of the time, as you don't want to loose the water if the tank breaks loose from it's plumbing.

Another option would be to plan on evacuating the kids and/or horses to some place with more water after a few days. It's much easier to reopen one or two lanes of a road then it is to repair major water systems.

TTFN
Tom

Edward wrote:

How much water do horses need a day? I need 140 Gallons for people, plus all the animals. That’s a lot of water. That’s 265 two liter bottles just for the people for two weeks

---

From: Tom
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2005 9:30 AM
Subject: Re: Why God will Destroy Los Angeles and San Francisco
Mom --

The recommendations I recall for SoCal are two gallons per person per day for at least two days and preferably until the water systems are fixed.

Some of this can be from sources like your hot water heater and toilet tanks, but some of it should be stored in a place you can get to if your home in condemned and you can't go back inside.

If the aqueducts break, the estimates I recall are two weeks to fix. I think most of Glendale's water is from wells, so assuming that the water tables don't shift too much they shouldn't be down more then a day or two. You might have to go a few blocks to get water in Glendale and will probably have to wait in line, but it should be available.

The recommendations are a bit less here in Seattle as much of the year we can collect rain water. Still I keep emergency food, water and shelter in my Jeep.

TTFN
Tom

Carol wrote:

now that's not humorous at all is Jim right do I need gallons of water

Tom wrote:

Mom & Others --

Call me a profit if you must, but God will also destroy much of the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco by earthquakes for pretty much the same reasons.

TTFN
Tom

Idea: Home Shopping Scanner

This is an idea I've been kicking around in various forms for almost 15 years now.

Basically I want a device with a bar code scanner that mounts near my kitchen garbage & recycling containers. As I use up a product and throw away the package, I would scan the UPC code and it would be added to an online shopping list. In up-scale markets this could be linked directly to an on-line grocery delivery service. But in most market areas (including mine), users should be able scan their preferred customer / club / reward card at a kiosk and have a shopping list print out of a receipt printer. A clever independent service provider could even perform price comparison and list display / update through mobile phones.

There are several way that such a Home Shopping Scanner could be designed. The easiest for consumers to install would probably be a stand alone wireless Ethernet device. Cheaper to build, but harder to install include, connecting via USB to a fridge mounted or under cabinet PC.

More quotes

While I'm ticked off at the "Bible Thumpers" and feeling prophetic, I'll throw out a few more choice original quotes.

The Bible is a history book that hasn't been adequately revised in almost 2000 years.

God's truest testament is his creation, the universe. Its laws of physics are his commandments and evolution is one of his most basic tools.

In the KJV, Matthew 5:5 has a typo and should read, "Blessed are the Geek: for they shall inherit the earth." Supporting evidence can be seen in by fixing the same typo in Psalms 25 & 37. Think about it. Persecution. Celibacy. Bill Gates. It makes sense.

Why God will Distroy Los Angeles and San Francisco

Mom & Others --

Call me a prophit if you must, but God will also destroy much of the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco by earthquakes for pretty much the same reasons.

TTFN
Tom