Time to rework this blog. I have been looking to return to blogging for a while and now seems like as good a time as any.
I'll be staying anonymous here, but I want to use this as an opportunity to explore some aspects of life and how the conventional wisdom is generally completely at odds with the realities of life. All highly politically incorrect stuff, hence avoiding my real name.
I may even go back through the archives and eliminate old postings. Not sure on this yet, as it might be interesting to let the progression of thought stand.
An overhaul of the blogroll will be the first point of order.
As we geeks like to say ... watch this ASCII character 32.
This is actually for me. You're welcome to follow along, but I'm already feeling like it's getting complicated, so a little tracking might serve us well.
Democrats
Obama
Yup. The great one himself. The destroyer of what decency was ever left in the Democratic party. Unfortunately, I suspect that the Democrats will not be wise enough to put up an alternative candidate. I'm sure they want to, but fear the reprisals for doing so. But that's OK, because the Democrats are showing Wisconsin what democracy looks like.
In future, I'll stick mostly to the Republicans, unless the Democrats do something more outrageous than usual.
Republicans
IN
Cain
Seriously impressive fellow. And he just won the straw poll at the Wisconsin Republican convention. Sorry Mr. Krauthammer, but I think you may be calling it wrong where Mr. Cain is concerned.
Gingrich
Stick a fork in him.
Paul
Flashes of genius wrapped in a desire to alienate as many people as possible.
Romney
RomneyCare! I don't care if it was in Massachusetts, it's still socialism. Don't let the door catch you on the way out please Mr. Romney.
I enjoyed his book and I respect the job he did as mayor of New York during the attack and aftermath of 9/11. But I think he's old news, has too much baggage and isn't nearly conservative enough for the Tea Party.
WHO KNOWS?
Palin
I heart Sarah Palin, but wonder if she isn't better situated as an external force. She'll have more effect on the election from outside than inside because the moment she announces, the media will restart the witch-hunt.
Ryan
Hands off! Let us keep a few of the good ones outside the Beltway.
Bolton
Every time I hear Mr. Bolton speak, I am more impressed than last time. I have not yet decided if he should run as VP or be ambassador for life to the UN.
West
Colonel West is a fine example of all that is good with the U.S. Military. And I think he'd do well as it's Commander-in-Chief. Perhaps he's a little young right now, but I think eight years as a VP would position him nicely for 2020.
Christie
Too antagonistic for my taste. There's being firm and he's definitely on the far side of that.
Bachmann
A better man for the job than the majority of the men running for the job. And she hearts the Tea Party and the Tea Party hearts her.
Santorum
Nice guy, pro-life and Dr. Dobson likes him. Not sure I see him as presidential material, but that could just be me.
If I had to choose today
Currently a toss-up.
Cain/West with Bolton as Ambassador to the UN. Cain/Bolton with West as Ambassador to the UN.
Oracle Corporation (a purveyor of wickedly expensive databases) purchased Sun Microsystems last year. Sun was the creator of the Java (a highly trademarked) programming language and environment. There were concerns voiced at the thought of Oracle Corporation (also known as the keep buying Larry more ocean-going racing yachts club) owning Java (oodles of trademarks) as they are known for being more interested in making money than running open-source projects or loving up on programmers. These thoughts were usually swiftly hushed and everyone was told that it would all be fine and that as the crown jewels of Oracle's (aforementioned large and heavily lawyered corporation) offerings were all deeply tied to Java (did I mention the trademarks?), there was no way that they would do anything stupid. After all, they said, you don't get to afford trans-Atlantic racing yachts and Gulfstream jets without number unless you know something good about business. So the geeks switched to silent waiting mode.
Lately, there have been quite a few cracks in the facade of Oracle (so big, they make Big Brother look like little sister) as benevolent curator of the Java (way more trademarks than you'll ever have) language and brand. I'll try to keep myself to the two latest examples and then deliver the pithy conclusion.
The Apache Software Foundation (these are the good guys) is a member of the Java (trademarks, trademarks, trademarks) Community Process, the overseeing body charged with guiding the ongoing development of Java (err ... trademarks). Well, they happen to have a project to re-write the Java (trademarks and then some) standard libraries in a cleanroom manner, so they can be used freely and under the business friendly Apache license. All good stuff and Sun (may it rest in peace) had an agreement with them to release the Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) under a suitable license for the Apache project to use so they could validate their implementation the for Java (trademarks, come and get 'em) standard libraries.
Unfortunately Sun (formerly great networking company) never got around to honoring this arrangement before they mis-managed themselves into the ground. Oracle (dark ominous music plays here) were previously in favor of this arrangement, but now that they own Java (and all the assorted trademarks) they have suddenly gone bi-polar on us and no longer think this is the swell idea it used to be.
This is a big deal, because while Java (marks of tradiness) is now GPL (all hail Richard Stallman) and the replacement libraries are open-source (a shout-out to ESR), there is the slight problem that nothing is allowed to be legally called Java (with or without trademarks) until it has passed the TCK. And Apache can't use the TCK because of one crazy legal clause in the whole arrangement.
Hudson is continuous integration server software. It is hosted on the java.net facility which is now owned by Oracle (not actually evil, but they make Microsoft look cuddly) and even worse, it would seem that Oracle (who should borrow Google's don't be evil mantra) own the trademark or copyright or copymark on the name Hudson. And one of their VP's wrote a snotty email explaining that folks were welcome to fork the project, but they couldn't have the project name.
There is great principle that I normally apply in such situations: "Never ascribe to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence!" And I think it might be useful here. At this point, I am not ready to accuse Oracle (you get the picture) of trying to kill Java (mark that trade), but I am quite certain that there are no signs that they aren't!
The title of this post come of course from that classic Monty Python sketch about the incompetent inquisitors of the Spanish Inquisition.
I am thankful that he did not leave me in my previous unpleasant life.
I am thankful for the Church, the body of Christ.
The Church is my family and I love all of my brothers and sisters in the Lord.
I am thankful for freedom, purchased for me by so many people I'll never meet, at a cost I can only imagine.
I am thankful for my wife and family.
I am thankful to be upright and breathing.
I am thankful to be gainfully employed and able to provide a comfortable living for my family.
I am thankful for the honor of being called to pastor a congregation.
I am thankful that as I am learning to pastor "on the job", that my first congregation is not too large.
I am thankful for the interesting roles I have been asked to fill in the kingdom.
I am thankful for the favor that the Lord has given me in my city.
And lastly, I'm thankful that I have no more than two readers of this blog, so when I get too busy to post for a month, nobody is demanding their money back!
Happy Thanksgiving! (And even if you feel like you have no possible reasons to be happy, just be glad that you aren't a turkey!)
We've all done it. Every web developer worth their salt has complained about HTTP being a stateless protocol. And this makes web applications much more difficult to write. Waa waa waa, moan moan moan.
Stop and think for a moment. The early web was a distributed repository of information. This information didn't need state. In fact, if the HTTP protocol had included state, it would have made the early web a much more fragile infrastructure. As designed, for the purpose at the time, the web was very well designed.
Now, the advent of web applications did cause a challenge. The lack of state was a huge problem. But ... it's been solved. By using cookies, browsers and webservers layered a perfectly workable state mechanism on top of the underlying transport mechanism. I know that everyone had security concerns over cookies when they arrived. But browsers are more careful in their implementations of them and it's generally agreed that they're the only way to transparantly add state to HTTP, so everyone took deep breaths and calmed down.
And what a testament to the design of HTTP, that something unforeseen could be added ontop in such a straight-forward way. An awesome design.
So, can we all stop bemoaning that HTTP is stateless? Very clever people have figured out how to transport state over HTTP, so let's just get on with using it and making great web applications.
It would seem that I find myself married to a star of radio. The lovely Sister Geek was invited to appear in a radio spot for our local conservative candidate for the state assembly. We have also appeared in his flyers and helped out a two parades. Of course, it helps that we live next door to the chairman of his campaign and they needed someone in a hurry. But still, a certain amount of bragging rights seems appropriate.
I am a geek who has been earning his living by writing computer programs since 1990. Then, in 2007 I also became the pastor of a small United Pentecostal Church International congregation in the lovely mid-west of the United States of America. These are my thoughts and adventures.
