Sunday, November 27, 2011
Looking forward to checkng out friends blogs... is that canabalistic?
My friend Marilyn is a great cook. I dream of some of the things that she makes....
Monday, November 07, 2011
The guitar is having some problems in its midsection.
The soundboard bracing is sagging, which causes the bridge to tilt, raising the strings and making the fingerboard action higher and harder to play....
Hmmm, seems we have a lot in common. Stay tuned.
Hmmm, seems we have a lot in common. Stay tuned.
Monday, June 09, 2008
It's been a while...
Its been a while. I've been busy. but that is no excuse, just an explanation. I'm not trying to get back to this and my second life stuff and also keep up with the old main line stuff that pays the bills.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Broke a leg. And I'm not in theatre
Hi Kids, remember me? Old guy... wonky guitar .... oh well.
But I'm back anyway. Seems being old has its drawbacks. One of which is a steady decline in the flexibility and immortality factors.
Twelve days ago I slipped on the ice and proved to all around that I was a mere mortal. I broke my left distal fibula and did a great job of dislocating the joint at the same time.
So I'll be back online for a bit now that I am a gentleman of luxury (bring me some BonBons!).
I plan to get back to musing, ruminating and the occasional bout of philosophizing.
I hope that I have someting to offer. Keep posted
But I'm back anyway. Seems being old has its drawbacks. One of which is a steady decline in the flexibility and immortality factors.
Twelve days ago I slipped on the ice and proved to all around that I was a mere mortal. I broke my left distal fibula and did a great job of dislocating the joint at the same time.
So I'll be back online for a bit now that I am a gentleman of luxury (bring me some BonBons!).
I plan to get back to musing, ruminating and the occasional bout of philosophizing.
I hope that I have someting to offer. Keep posted
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Open source, freeware and the copyright law of the United States.
or
"James, Ben, Thomas, and Alexander have we failed you?"
Am reading The World is Flat along with 1491 and 1423. It is striking that this round world of ours has gotten so small since the days when I sat in the basement of the Coal Science building at the U of Illinois and talked with Chris and Marc about the code that they were working on for the beta versions of NCSA Mosaic (you may or may not recognize that as the core of the very first web browser family tree NCSA Mosic > Netscape > Mozilla > Firefox).
According to the jumbled mess that I'm reading now, the Chinese knew that the earth was round some hundred years before Columbus and Magellan. They reportedly circumnavigated and explored the earth with four fleets in the years 1421-1423.
Bring that forward a hundred years and we've seen European circumnavigate and the Cortez guys making a mess of the western hemisphere through both good old fashioned manly conquering and the spread of disease which decimated a surprisingly large population.
It took 500 years to make the world small and flat again through the work of folks like Tim Berners-Lee, Mark Andreeson and Linus Torvald. Flat as in flattening the playing field. We are all next door neighbors and the guy who books your cable TV installation or helps you troubleshoot your DVD player or even the person who places your happy meal order might be half way around the world in China or India.
OK so who are James, Tom, Alex and Ben and what do they have to do with some 15th century Chinese guy named Zheng He? In section 8 of the US constitution, James Madison and a gang of young upstarts (including Ben, Alex, and tom) established the powers of the new government to include
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
The whole idea of copyright is to promote the progress of science and the useful arts, not to make some music media or machinery mogul rich. Seems to your humble correspondent that we have wandered very far from the source on this one. I rarely hear "happy birthday" sung in public celebrations anymore because someone feels entitled to get rich off the efforts of a 1935 copyright of a lyric that was probably written to make someone happy, not to buy a beemer for the great great grandkids.
Ooops just looked at the time. I have to run off to a meeting of like minds and perhaps storm a bastille (oops again.... wrong revolution). more on this later.
sorry to keep you all waiting. The link in the ramble. The three inventions that made this flattening of our global neighborhood happen were all done in the freeware, open source, non-commercial world. Sure, Marc got a great job after developing Mosaic/Netscape, Tim and Linus likewise did OK. But not by marketing selling licensing and commercially exploiting their inventions. They did it for "the progress of science and the useful arts." If they had been more interested in profiting by the virtual sweat of their brows, and getting their "fair share of the pie" we'd all be a lot worse off.
well more on this later. I guess I'll have to go write a letter to a paper publisher somewhere to see if I can get this writing published somewhere within the next three years so that I can share it with you all..............
or
"James, Ben, Thomas, and Alexander have we failed you?"
Am reading The World is Flat along with 1491 and 1423. It is striking that this round world of ours has gotten so small since the days when I sat in the basement of the Coal Science building at the U of Illinois and talked with Chris and Marc about the code that they were working on for the beta versions of NCSA Mosaic (you may or may not recognize that as the core of the very first web browser family tree NCSA Mosic > Netscape > Mozilla > Firefox).
According to the jumbled mess that I'm reading now, the Chinese knew that the earth was round some hundred years before Columbus and Magellan. They reportedly circumnavigated and explored the earth with four fleets in the years 1421-1423.
Bring that forward a hundred years and we've seen European circumnavigate and the Cortez guys making a mess of the western hemisphere through both good old fashioned manly conquering and the spread of disease which decimated a surprisingly large population.
It took 500 years to make the world small and flat again through the work of folks like Tim Berners-Lee, Mark Andreeson and Linus Torvald. Flat as in flattening the playing field. We are all next door neighbors and the guy who books your cable TV installation or helps you troubleshoot your DVD player or even the person who places your happy meal order might be half way around the world in China or India.
OK so who are James, Tom, Alex and Ben and what do they have to do with some 15th century Chinese guy named Zheng He? In section 8 of the US constitution, James Madison and a gang of young upstarts (including Ben, Alex, and tom) established the powers of the new government to include
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
The whole idea of copyright is to promote the progress of science and the useful arts, not to make some music media or machinery mogul rich. Seems to your humble correspondent that we have wandered very far from the source on this one. I rarely hear "happy birthday" sung in public celebrations anymore because someone feels entitled to get rich off the efforts of a 1935 copyright of a lyric that was probably written to make someone happy, not to buy a beemer for the great great grandkids.
Ooops just looked at the time. I have to run off to a meeting of like minds and perhaps storm a bastille (oops again.... wrong revolution). more on this later.
sorry to keep you all waiting. The link in the ramble. The three inventions that made this flattening of our global neighborhood happen were all done in the freeware, open source, non-commercial world. Sure, Marc got a great job after developing Mosaic/Netscape, Tim and Linus likewise did OK. But not by marketing selling licensing and commercially exploiting their inventions. They did it for "the progress of science and the useful arts." If they had been more interested in profiting by the virtual sweat of their brows, and getting their "fair share of the pie" we'd all be a lot worse off.
well more on this later. I guess I'll have to go write a letter to a paper publisher somewhere to see if I can get this writing published somewhere within the next three years so that I can share it with you all..............
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Long time away again.
OK, so I've not posted for a bit. Not that I don't want to, just that life gets a bit long in the day. (do I hear violins playing for me?) I'm borrowing a car cuz my old wagon gave up the ghost. It broke a belt and the dealership guy said to drive it to the shop and they'd fix it. I did, they did, but in the process of the drive it overheated and wrecked something else (BIG!). So am driving an old lady car and as a concession to myself, have added my Grateful Dead teddy bear to the dash. Family members' various illnesses have complicated. We are now dealing with congestive heart failure, kidney failure, considerable edema, depression (them clinical, me simply moody), broken bones, lack of and curiously altered appetites and food problems.
Am getting my work done, but have little time for my therapeutic fun things like beating up innocent pieces of lumber and blogging this. The scion is doing well tho. He's a smart kid and does well in the few extracurricular activities that he chooses. His grades are great this term (A's across the board). I think that he's finally gotten the hang of (and the hankerin' to) do well in school.
More later.
OK, so I've not posted for a bit. Not that I don't want to, just that life gets a bit long in the day. (do I hear violins playing for me?) I'm borrowing a car cuz my old wagon gave up the ghost. It broke a belt and the dealership guy said to drive it to the shop and they'd fix it. I did, they did, but in the process of the drive it overheated and wrecked something else (BIG!). So am driving an old lady car and as a concession to myself, have added my Grateful Dead teddy bear to the dash. Family members' various illnesses have complicated. We are now dealing with congestive heart failure, kidney failure, considerable edema, depression (them clinical, me simply moody), broken bones, lack of and curiously altered appetites and food problems.
Am getting my work done, but have little time for my therapeutic fun things like beating up innocent pieces of lumber and blogging this. The scion is doing well tho. He's a smart kid and does well in the few extracurricular activities that he chooses. His grades are great this term (A's across the board). I think that he's finally gotten the hang of (and the hankerin' to) do well in school.
More later.
Friday, January 20, 2006
People of value and bravery and things like that.
I was just talking with a colleague about another who has always amazed me as totally available and quietly very competent. She can do amazing things and is patient and never draws attention to her daily brilliance and miracle working.
Last night I spent time with an elderly relative who is having serious doubts about her ability to go on in the face of hardship and very ill health. All of her systems are failing and maintenance treatments are taking a tremendous toll. I was telling her how bravery is doing "the right thing" in the face of adversity, not having the "whatever" to do the dangerous or risky-to-safety thing. So it might be much more brave and honorable to work with the treatments than to do the "dangerous" thing and end life-sustaining treatments. Its a hard thing to define... which is brave and honorable and which is just plain foolhardy. It needs to be defined by the situation and time.
The thought that ties them together is a matter of personal integrity and "worth."
Is it too trite to say that it is easier to be a character than to have character. Maybe that is it, and then again maybe its not.
Boy am I tired! I'm going home now through the snow.....
I was just talking with a colleague about another who has always amazed me as totally available and quietly very competent. She can do amazing things and is patient and never draws attention to her daily brilliance and miracle working.
Last night I spent time with an elderly relative who is having serious doubts about her ability to go on in the face of hardship and very ill health. All of her systems are failing and maintenance treatments are taking a tremendous toll. I was telling her how bravery is doing "the right thing" in the face of adversity, not having the "whatever" to do the dangerous or risky-to-safety thing. So it might be much more brave and honorable to work with the treatments than to do the "dangerous" thing and end life-sustaining treatments. Its a hard thing to define... which is brave and honorable and which is just plain foolhardy. It needs to be defined by the situation and time.
The thought that ties them together is a matter of personal integrity and "worth."
Is it too trite to say that it is easier to be a character than to have character. Maybe that is it, and then again maybe its not.
Boy am I tired! I'm going home now through the snow.....
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