Be the signal » technology

QoTD: Justice Kirby

Jeff Waugh — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:16:11 +0000

“We are moving to a point in the world where more and more law will be expressed in its effective way, not in terms of statutes solidly enacted by the parliament â€¦ but in the technology itself: code.” — Australian High Court Judge, Justice Kirby, Tech makes lawmakers impotent, says Judge

Great to hear this understood and so clearly stated by a highly influential Australian judge.

Love in a time of Facebook

Jeff Waugh — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 07:57:57 +0000

… updated her profile. She is now looking for friendship and networking.

… went from being “single” to “in a relationship”.

If I hadn’t already known offline, let alone been waiting for it to blossom in excruciating pain for months, this would have been one of those “$TECHNOLOGY is changing the way we view the world” posts.

Instead, here is a picture of Pia:

Sun, Java and Other Shoes

Jeff Waugh — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:29:16 +0000

“JAVA is a technology whose value is near infinite to the internet, and a brand that’s inseparably a part of Sun (and our profitability). And so next week, we’re going to embrace that reality by changing our trading symbol, from SUNW to JAVA.” — Jonathan Schwartz, The Rise of JAVA - The Retirement of SUNW

… and now we’re left waiting for the other shoe to drop.

If the Java brand were not already so overloaded — for example, 95% of Sun’s “Java Desktop System” is not even remotely related to Java — my gut reaction may have been more positive. That said, they’ve been making some good moves recently, so I’m loathe to think this change isn’t part of a broader narrative.

Linux for… Ladies?

Jeff Waugh — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 05:42:34 +0000

“If you want to sound like a creep, add the word ‘ladies’ to the end of things you say: Thanks for coming to my show… ladies.” — Demetri Martin on his hilarious comedy album, These Are Jokes

All kudos to Canonical for selling women’s form-fitting t-shirts at their new online store — they’re smart enough to know that their brand recognition rises faster on Pipka’s ample bust than mine — but why the cutesy variation on “Linux for Human Beings”?

Freedom of Automation

Jeff Waugh — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:29:15 +0000

Jon Udell links to → his interview with Jeannette Wing about computational thinking → which reminds me of Conrad Parker’s Freedom of Automation talk (Ogg, 19M) at our Software Freedom Day event in Sydney last year.

Speaking with customers

Jeff Waugh — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:23:03 +0000

Today, Pipka came home with a story about a customer who was considering moving to a 100% Windows environment because he was merely unfamiliar with Linux.

Now, I wouldn’t recommend the strategy she used in the general case — in fact, I’d find it hard to recommend it under many circumstances at all — but here’s how she began her successful save today:

“Have you seen the film, Independence Day?”

Update: That’s not an IMDB or Wikipedia link…

Measuring Blackouts with Cacti

Jeff Waugh — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:09:13 +0000

Every zero point on this graph — which represents the last two months of uptime on my laser printer (!) — is the result of a blackout.

The first was kind of disappointing. The rest have just been annoying: Getting up late with 05:14 flashing on the alarm clock, asking Pipka to set the time on the microwave (because I can’t figure it out — seriously) and working out which other devices didn’t manage to start properly…

This is where technology fails us. Not because the lights went out, but because there were only about thirty seconds between, “Huh, I bet the SNMP thingy in the printer can tell me its uptime” and having it beautifully graphed with Cacti.

… and now because I can see my laser printer’s uptime, I care about my laser printer’s uptime.

Well, I would. If it had any.

Update: It should be noted (mainly for California readers) that blackouts are an odd occurrence here.