dropload is a very cool concept...
posted by Will Ross at 21:43

garden log
in the eighties in the okanogan i rented a garden spot near tonasket. my garden was in a former horse pasture. over the south side of the pasture fence was the home of a long time local horticulturalist named chet stevenson and his wife pearl. chet had worked in the okanogan valley apple industry for decades. chet and pearl shared a small frame house with a lush garden and home orchard. one of chet's many horticultural hobbies was raising his own strain of garlic. since i was in the garden seed business at the time, i bought a hundred pounds of chet's garlic and sold it through my mail order catalog, known as the good seed company. as the years went by i sold the seed company and moved to california. in the nineties i wrote to a friend in tonasket and asked him to sell me some of the chet's garlic. he sent me some, but he said people had stopped growing it because it was running out, it was no longer dependable.

i started growing it again and i saw what he meant. this version of chet's, while visually retaining the purple streaks on the skin of the bulb, did not conform to a stable single bulb. after the first growth of the main stalk is complete a new stalk sprouts from inside each leaf bract along the stem. meanwhile, below ground each individual clove divides into a bulb of several cloves. this growth pattern has persisted in my harvests of chet's garlic for ten years. this past summer my bed of 48 bulbs featured only one that did not produce secondary sprouting. i saved it aside, planning to use it for seed, but it quickly rotted.

today i planted a bed of 45 cloves of chet's garlic. on the east side of the bed are 12 cloves from outer, secondary sprouting regions. on the west side of the bed are 33 cloves from inner regions on the bulbs. i'll report back on this planting as the crop progresses.
posted by Will Ross at 13:02

Joel Spolsky has a great review of Eric Raymond's The Art of Unix Programming.
posted by Will Ross at 11:37

Wry humor from Cringely:

"If your idea of having a life is following IEEE standards development, you know that 802.15.3 looks to be the first Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) networking technology used by folks who aren't spies and secret agents."

posted by Will Ross at 09:08

a seat at the table from the mendocino cancer resource center.
posted by Will Ross at 09:16

The Artistic Freedom Voucher: Internet Age Alternative to Copyrights by Dean Baker, on the Center for Economic and Policy Research web site.

SCO Threatens to Sue Hollywood at groklaw, aka "i am not a lawyer".

"...the bottom line in my mind is this: Novell knows what is in the BSDi settlement agreement, because they were a party to it. And they weren't a bit frightened by SCO's lawsuit and decided to go ahead and buy SuSE Linux. What does that tell you, folks?"

Posted by Craig on groklaw:

Corollary to Clarke's Third Law:   Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

posted by Will Ross at 18:54

Israel: The Alternative.   Here's a remarkable sentence that cuts through many layers of denial: "In today's 'clash of cultures' between open, pluralist democracies and belligerently intolerant, faith-driven ethno-states, Israel actually risks falling into the wrong camp." This idea is at the core of an essay by Tony Judt writing in the New York Review of Books. Judt also writes: "The problem with Israel, in short, is not—as is sometimes suggested—that it is a European 'enclave' in the Arab world; but rather that it arrived too late. It has imported a characteristically late-nineteenth-century separatist project into a world that has moved on, a world of individual rights, open frontiers, and international law. The very idea of a 'Jewish state'—a state in which Jews and the Jewish religion have exclusive privileges from which non-Jewish citizens are forever excluded— is rooted in another time and place. Israel, in short, is an anachronism." Let the squirming begin.
posted by Will Ross at 07:03

Robert X. Cringely has a sharp column this week undressing Steve Ballmer's recent remarks. How Microsoft's Misunderstanding of Open Source Hurts Us All
posted by Will Ross at 17:19

Transfer of PHI by AHIMA. Also, Shadow Charts (aka escaped, unsecured PHI).
posted by Will Ross at 05:13

Organizational Policies and Open Source by James Negrette, Robert Munro, and Andrew Aitken [ Linux Devices ]

Intro to Wireless by IBM.



posted by Will Ross at 17:21

it's grey and drizzly but beautiful in vancouver today...
posted by Will Ross at 14:20

The Digital Imprimatur by John Walker, subtitled "How big brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the bottle." Food for thought.
posted by Will Ross at 17:28

writing in slate christopher hutchins provides an entertaining read in moore's law: the immorality of the ten commandments.
posted by Will Ross at 16:47

five in the morning. thinking about the past. thinking about mistakes i made. thinking about people i trusted that i shouldn't have because as events unfolded they were not worthy of the trust i placed in them and things were said or done back then that carry hurt and pain into the present. like crimes against humanity going on in my house that i missed because i was deceived. successfully deceived. now i'm thinking about lies i was told by people i loved, people i cared for, people i was supposed to protect who were under attack but i didn't know it and they didn't trust me enough to tell me. thinking about deceptions that involved hiding information from me, information that is no longer hidden by people who are now questioning my ethics and my integrity even though they were deceiving me and now i am somehow responsible for being deceived. i have a lot of questions this morning, and not a lot of answers.

it's partly a survivor's guilt thing. from my perspective i didn't protect what i didn't know was at risk because i didn't notice what was happening, as in ignorance was bliss. but now the people i love say that my inaction and inattention in the past somehow justifies their right to lay a guilt trip on me in the present. as in my ignorance was inadequate then and is no excuse now. it's hard to talk about because even the act of talking about it can be interpreted as an attack or as a failure to protect. it's like emotional blackmail. it's a mental knot where failure to be conspicuously compassionate becomes equated with being an accessory to the fact. it's very strange logic and i am a bit at a loss to address it. it's very messy. people are yelling at me like i'm a runaway horse and they're innocent riders but my perspective is so totally different that i don't know where to start. maybe there is no good place to start, only rotten places. maybe starting to talk about it is worse than keeping quiet. or maybe the best response is no response. but that just reinforces the mistaken perception that i do not care. i don't see a good way forward. it's fuzzy to think about. it's five in the morning.
posted by Will Ross at 05:34

eben moglen, professor of law at columbia university law school, and general counsel of the free software foundation, has published an excellent position paper called Questioning SCO: A Hard Look at Nebulous Claims.
posted by Will Ross at 15:13

in one my early posts on this blog i said, "i think george w. bush is the worst american president in the past 40 years." i posted those timid comments on march 31, 2003. earlier this week the german news site der spiegel online published an interview with george a. akerlof, a 2001 nobel laureate in economics, who teaches at u.c. berkeley. speaking of the bush administration, prof. akerlof says, "i think this is the worst american government the u.s. has ever had in its more than 200 years of history." so with cover from prof. akerlof, i'll expand my earlier opinion to embrace just how awful our current situation is. unlawful combatants detained for extrajudicial proceedings, military tribunals, if you're not with us you're against us, ashcroft's absurd claims that free speech aids terrorists, tax breaks for the wealthy while reducing services to the poor, screwing verterans out of their benefits, abrogating international treaties, proposing an unashamedly unilateralist global domination for the u.s.a., all this has nothing to do with the declaration of independence, the u.s. constitution, the statue of liberty, or the visceral dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for which the u.s.a. has been the flag bearer. like martin luther king, jr., i too have a dream of people living together and getting along. bush & cheney do not share this dream. the regime of bush & cheney represents a nightmarish assault on these principles. the policies of the current american adminsitration threaten freedom, independence and democracy here at home and throughout the world. we have to throw them out of office in 2004. the fair and honest minded people of the world are counting on us.
posted by Will Ross at 11:25

today a full page ad in the new york times from wedeservethetruth.com.
posted by Will Ross at 12:58

doc searls nails it with saving the net.
posted by Will Ross at 08:38

free at last, free at last, the national do-not-call list is finally here. to register a number by phone, you must be calling from that phone number. to register a number by the web, you must provide an email address.
posted by Will Ross at 13:13

today i went to day one of the plaNetwork conference at the presidio in san francisco. the attendees were a mix of hard core global social change activists, technology visionaries (including both brittle partisans and gregarious alpha geeks) and a broad base of left-leaning non-profit idealists. this is a soft money crowd, short on business logic, where capitalism is mistrusted and conservatives are considered an appalling subspecies. obviously by themselves this group is not on a fast evolutionary track to wide social collaboration as long as so many partisans wallow in simple closed minded arrogance.

i attended the keynote by hazel henderson. it was great to see her in person.

next i listened to mitch kapor introduce his open source software foundation and their chandler project. after the talk i asked mitch if he thinks the sco-caldera linux kernal lawsuit can disable the gpl. he dismissed sco-caldera as scoundrels filing a desperate lawsuit to prop up their stock price in the face of their evaporating unix market share. besides, he said, even if sco-caldera wins their suit, it will take the linux community less than a day to replace the offending code.

i watched a panel of talking heads discuss blogging. after some initial fast moving discussion an audience member asked in desperation, "what is a blog?" a show of hands displayed the disconnect clearly; a quarter of the audience had never heard of a blog, while half of the audience already have blogs. not a lot of middle ground!
posted by Will Ross at 22:00

the plaNetwork conference next month in san francisco is a follow up to their 2000 conference, held before the dotcom crash and before the september 11th terrorist attack on the world trade center. now that our future is an inexorible portal thru a glass darkly to a grim realm dominated by the lower angels of our natures, and not the happy collaborative one envisioned in may of 2000, what message can optimists now deliver? that hope still springs eternal? that energy is eternal delight?
posted by Will Ross at 10:09

want to know the complete sun and moon data for one day at a location of your choice in the u.s.a.? the one day feature offered by the u.s. naval observatory has the answer.
posted by Will Ross at 17:06

an article titled drug firms cure the rich covers a speech by british nobel prize winning scientist sir john sulston. speaking at the edinburgh international science festival sir john questions the priorities of market-driven science, especially for pharmaceutical research and manufacturing.
posted by Will Ross at 19:48

late to the party as usual, i finally noticed this exellent op-ed piece by nobel prize winning author gunter grass, The U.S. Betrays Its Core Values, published two weeks ago.
posted by Will Ross at 09:36

i'm disappointed by the appalling intolerance of hard right and hard left partisans in our culture. it is as destructive as any repugnant regime in history. future historians, once the irrational distractions of current events decay into rational analysis, will no doubt nail our intolerant behavior. we read about civic tragedies gone by and shake our heads wondering why the people who were involved in those events were so easily fooled. meanwhile, engaged in similar denial, we eagerly participate in ongoing collective confrontational civic idiocy.

this month, as in all past months since the terrorist attack on new york on 11 september 2001, i remain in a state of high alarm over the ongoing assault on our civil rights by conservative legal mobs rioting through our society. they mistake a control-freak agenda for patriotism. i enjoyed the speech by tim robbins to the national press club, his response to being thrust into the spotlight by the partisan idiot in charge of the baseball hall of fame. earlier in the week dale petrosky, president of the baseball hall of fame, cancelled a trivial weekend event scheduled at the hall to commemorate the amusing baseball film bull durham because it might give tim robbins, one of the co-stars in the film, an opportunity to personally endanger the lives of american military personnel, a laughable claim in a rational society, but a serious belief among partisans in our defective times.

for what it's worth i wrote mr. petrosky and asked for his resignation on the basis of his inability to provide non-partisan leadership for the hall of fame. unfortunately for all baseball fans everywhere, mr. petrosky believes that baseball belongs only to pro-war americans, and when confronted with the foolishness of his stance for a sport with international fans, he remained unapologetic. obviously, in the best interests of baseball, mr. petrosky's condition is terminal, and it is only a matter of time till everyone realises he is the wrong man for the job.
posted by Will Ross at 09:24

saw a great quote today, from rev. martin luther king, jr.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar, it is learning to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs to be restructured.

posted by Will Ross at 12:36

on 18 april 1946, during easter recess for his trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, captured nazi reichsmarshall hermann goering was interviewed by gustave gilbert, a german-speaking intelligence officer and psychologist. goering's comments on patriotism, noted below, were published in gilbert's book nuremburg diary.

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

[p 278-279] Nuremberg Diary by G.M. Gilbert, Farrar, Straus & Co, New York, 1947.

these cold, calculating observations on patriotism from a nazi war criminal expose the arrogance, manipulation and deceit at the heart of the bush foreign policy. bullies don't have to get along, they just have to beat the crap out of their opponents.
posted by Will Ross at 06:30

some quick links:

oscom looks interesting. i might go.

LEDs vs. the Lightbulb in technology review

big music's broken record

posted by Will Ross at 20:42

it's raining today in san jose
posted by Will Ross at 14:23

maybe it's all just a joke?
as usual comedians expose the soft underbelly of the beast:

"President Bush announced tonight that he believes in democracy and that democracy can exist in Iraq. They can have a strong economy, they can have a good health care plan, and they can have a free and fair voting. Iraq? We can't even get this in Florida." -Jay Leno

"President Bush has said that he does not need approval from the UN to wage war, and I'm thinking, well, hell, he didn't need the approval of the American voters to become president, either." -David Letterman

"When the Democrats pointed out that President Bush's budget creates a 1 trillion dollar deficit, the White House quickly responded with 'Hey, look over there, it's Saddam Hussein.'" -Craig Kilborn

"The president boasted at the top of his press conference that we have the support now of Britain and Spain for our attack on Iraq. You know, when you want to make it perfectly clear to the world that you're not an imperialist, the people you want in your corner are Britain and Spain." -Bill Maher

americans will look back on the bush presidency as an exercise in futility.

[wr]
posted by Will Ross at 22:21

free at last!
the california attorney general has established a web page where you can pre-enroll for the national do-not-call list.
posted by Will Ross at 08:47

three months, no posts. ok, i'll mention one thing that's bothering me.

the local paramilitary patriotic thugs were out again this weekend, roaring up and down main street in their oversized trucks with visible guns, huge flags, and their loud in-your-face pro-war messages. i went about my business while ignoring their offensive and intimidating bluster. i think george w. bush is the worst american president in the past 40 years. he doesn't think or speak for the america i believe in. he represents the worst in arrogance and intolerance. his mind boggling welfare scams for the wealthy combined with his cruel ruthlessness towards the poor and his violent and reckless abuse of international laws displays the apalling selfishness of an ill-omened empire that exploits its neighbors, abuses good will and ultimately will fall into precipitous decline unless this destructive course is altered. the america he leads is a clear and present danger to the lives of ordinary honest global citizens. i hope he is a one term president, because this country and the rest of the world can use a break from the unilateralist neighborhood bully that america has become under bush and his crooked, lying, self-serving henchmen. the democrats were right, bush isn't smart enough to be president.

[wr]
posted by Will Ross at 15:34