October, 20, 2004 archives

there’s a new site opposing software patents in the european union called, appropriately enough, no software patents! the very clever might notice that the domain is registered in my name (along with the .org and .net variants), which is just a side effect of how the project got initiated within mysql (whose position on patents is online, incidentally). my involvement basically ended at registering the domain names, and they will be getting transferred to someone else soon.

perhaps all the vegas hotel/casinos do this, but i was a little impressed to get a letter with a special offer from the new frontier hotel casino the other day (an atrium suite for $45 weekday, $69 weekends through january 27). of course, the graphic of someone shoveling snow isn’t exactly compelling to a southern california resident.

american casino is the discovery channel version of mark burnett’s the casino that ran on fox over the summer (which burnett, who produces survivor, called his worst show ever. it’s interesting to see how another team does with a very similar concept.

i’m the chair for the lamp track, and would gladly accept bribes for submitted proposals. the best bribe is the submission of a good tutorial or session proposal. here’s the summary of the lamp track:

LAMP

This track is for anyone who is already using or considering making the open source LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python) stack a core component of their software infrastructure. How is the LAMP stack is being used to power massive websites while maintaining a cost-effective TCO?

Topics:

• New LAMP Releases and Features
• Application Architectures
• Best Practices
• Case Studies
• LAMP related components (FreeBSD, NetWare, Windows)

i went to another talk at the los angeles public library, this time by jeff hawkins, cofounder of palm and handspring, and sandra blakeslee, a science writer, who have coauthored a book called on intelligence, which lays out a sort of foundational theory for neuroscience. it sounds like some really interesting work, with only a minor crossover with jeff’s work at palm and handspring. perhaps i’ll be able to explain better once i’ve actually read the book. (“you are number 9 in the holds list. there are 5 copies eligible for holds.”)

i’ve already rsvp’d for another talk next month, by harold evens, author of they made america: from the steam engine to the search engine: two centuries of innovators. the week has run a couple of excerpts from the book in the last couple of issues. (“you are number 16 in the holds list. there are 12 copies eligible for holds.”)

there’s another discussion i’m thinking of attending next month with robert a.f. thurman, which will be moderated by david o. russell, director of three kings and i ♥ huckabees.

when i was at the library, i returned a couple of books that were due and unrenewable. one i had only gotten part way through (idiot proof: deluded celebrities, irrational power brokers, media morons, and the erosion of common sense by francis wheen), which i wasn’t altogether impressed with, and another that i hadn’t even started (the reformation: a history by diarmaid macculloch), which i’ll have to try again later.