General Rambling

Dear Open Source Software Developers, Take a cue from the commercial software of the world and call your first released version 1.0. Subsequent feature releases can be 2.0, 3.0, etc. Bug fixes can be 2.1, 3.0.1, etc. I don’t care how you do that, just so long as the version number is greater than or equal to 1.0.0. “But Bob, I use versions like 0.3.1 to indicate that the software is not feature complete.” So don’t release it, then, or call it ALPHA. Most software adds features with new version releases. Why are you different? “Sure, but I want to indicate it isn’t ready for prime-time.” Hey, pal, unless you put ALPHA or BETA in the version name us poor …

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Matt Mullenweg posted that he discovered a 2 inch knife in his carry-on luggage. That is, after he’s cleared security a number of times. I know the feeling. I had a screwdriver in my carry-on backpack after flying at least three full round trips last year. One of those interchangeable bit types, with the removable shaft in the middle. Didn’t mean to have it, but you’d think that it would have been caught. Every time I stand in the hour-long checkpoint line, shoes in hand, I think of that screwdriver, and how ridiculous this all really is.

There is a theatrical supply store in Madison which I do business with for colors, gobos (steel patterns in the lights), lamps, gaffer tape, etc. I love them. You can email them an order, call them, or walk in, and if they don’t have what you need they will order it. Their sales staff is helpful and friendly, and because most of the theater companies in Madison do business there you can charge things to your company, which helps eliminate the reimbursement hassle. The only problem is that their credit card machine’s header has an unfortunate abbreviation for “Associates.” When is the last time you checked your own output for things like this?

Despite the opening of Oklahoma and the Great Taste of the Midwest on Saturday I headed to Saint Paul to see Spamalot at the Ordway Theater. Many of you don’t know this but I collect canned meats[0], and as such Spamalot has always been something I’ve longed to see. Unfortunately my trips to New York City have only permitted me to pick up a can of Golden Honey Grail Spam, not to see the show. I thought it was pretty funny. It’s basically a stage version of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” with some additional stuff thrown in. Some of the scenes were changed a bit from the original. The scene with the French guy was a bit different, …

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It’s been pretty slow on the blog, and for that I apologize. It’s is a busy couple of weeks as Oregon Straw Hat Players gets “Oklahoma!” ready to go. This week is tech week, where we get all the technical problems worked out. Every night I end up with at least four pages of notes for myself, this light is misfocused, it’s too dark in cue 195, my color choices suck, etc. The next day I go in early to work out all these kinks, starting fresh for that night’s rehearsal. Theatrical lighting design is a hobby of mine, and I’m the lighting designer for this show. Computers used to be my main hobby, but once I started to be …

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I first knew something was amiss when all phone circuits were busy as I tried to call my mom. I have no idea how many times I’ve driven across that bridge. Roads in northern cities suffer extremes. Bitter cold in the winter, scorching heat in summer, expanding and contracting over and over every day. Water seeps in and freezes, heaving the road, widening the cracks. Bridges add water underneath, rusting and corroding. Because they are open underneath they freeze faster and become hazardous, so they are the first to be deiced, often with salt which furthers the corrosion. As with any bridge the load rests on just a few points, vulnerable to washouts and collisions at the very least. Hopefully …

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I’ve been quite busy lately. So busy that I’ve even resorted to a to-do list. First come, first served, too. Scary. As such, the blog posts have been a little thin, but I’m hoping to get a couple good ones in yet this week. I did make it up to the upper peninsula of Michigan this last weekend for the wedding of my friends Matt and Amie. Amie’s sister lives in Nahma, MI and they had their wedding on the sandy shore there. We stayed in Escanaba (mainly because of the book store, given it was Harry Potter night), and on the way up got slightly lost as I missed a turn. To correct we headed down some random county …

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I love the term “yak shaving.” It completely describes my afternoon yesterday, when I needed to scan a document. Look for Vista drivers for my old, freebie scanner. Install them. (15 minutes) Remember that I had unplugged the scanner from everything. Crawl under the desk to plug it back in. Discover $0.73 in change dropped under my desk. (5 minutes) I don’t have any free power outlets under my desk. Find a power strip. (10 minutes) I’d taken the USB cable and used it on an external drive. Find another. (5 minutes) Let computer detect device. Wander away, get a soda with the change I just found. (Less than 15 minutes) No light in scanner. Press every button on front …

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“Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows” has been read. I may now return to my regularly scheduled life. At least until Gibson’s “Spook Country” comes out on the 7th. I better get some work done before that.