Last Saturday morning in San Diego I had breakfast with Steven den Beste, the redoubtable captain of U.S.S. Clueless. One of the side-effects of that meeting was a long critique of open-source development. Herewith my response. Steve and I agree on the scaling problem that has pushed software development efforts to the ragged edge of… Continue reading Right back at ya, Captain
Month: July 2002
Run Silent, Go Feep
Warning: The following blog entry provides way more than the recommended daily allowance of geeking. If you don’t have a serious propeller-head streak, surf outta here now before it’s too late. I’m mainly a software guy, but occasionally I build PCs for fun. Design them, rather; the further away I stay from actual hardware the… Continue reading Run Silent, Go Feep
The Non-Portability of Barbecue
(Originally titled: Travelling in Texas) I was on the road in Texas last week, addressing Linux user groups in Dallas and Austin. I always enjoy visiting Texas. It’s a big, wide-open place full of generous people who cultivate a proper appreciation of some of my favorite things in life — firearms, blues guitar, and pepper… Continue reading The Non-Portability of Barbecue
Diet Considered as a Bad Religion
A current New York Times news story, What If It’s All Been A Big Fat Lie, entertainingly chronicles the discovery that low-fat diets are bad for people. More specifically, that the substitution of carbohydrates like bread and pasta and potatoes for meat that we’ve all had urged on us since the early 1980s is probably… Continue reading Diet Considered as a Bad Religion
Winning the War Against Terror
(Final essay of the series.) In previous essays in this series, I have described Islam as a warlike and bloody religion subject to periodic fits of violent fundamentalist revival. I have analyzed the roots of Islamic terror in the Koranic duty of jihad, and elucidated Osama bin Laden’s goal as nothing less than the destruction… Continue reading Winning the War Against Terror