DevelopingStorm

Galaxy Zoo

2009-02-21T23:07:00.006-05:00

It's one thing to understand at an intellectual level that there are a lot of galaxies in the universe it's another thing to experience it first hand. I've been getting a little lesson in the sheer number of galaxies out there by helping out on the Galaxy Zoo project. Galaxy Zoo is a site that uses volunteer observers to classify various attributes of previously imaged galaxies. Once you sign up you can jump in and start classifying. The process is simple. You get shown a picture of a galazy and you answer a series of questions about it - Is it spiral or a blob? If it's a spiral, how many arms can you see? If it's a blob is the blog circular, oval or more cigar shaped? That sort of thing. Each picture only takes a few seconds to process and your off to another. It can get really mind blowing when you stop to think about what you're seeing as classify picture after picture - each galaxy is hosting millions if not billions of stars with all the accompanying potential for strange planets and the life they may hold.

Deadly Force

2009-02-01T11:54:00.005-05:00

I just finished reading the powerful April Witt article in the Washington Post called:

Deadly Force
What a SWAT team did to Cheye Calvo's family may seem extreme. But decades into America's war on drugs, it's business as usual.
(Link)

The abuse of power and the complete lack of integrity displayed by the police in this article is unforgivable and one more horrible data point in a sad history of excessive force by police.

Really is the war on drugs worth it? Is this sort of collateral damage to our fellow citizens and our constitution worth it? The insanity needs to stop.

The Art of Josh Keyes

2009-01-22T11:40:00.009-05:00

Josh Keyes is an artist I just became aware of who combines elements of mechanical illustration and wildlife to produce some very dramatic images. Check out more of his work on his web site.

I love the incongruity of the images. They tickle the my brain like an obscure joke Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Giraffe. They also can be simultaneously cautionary and optimistic. The surfaces often depicit a decline of man and the rise of nature yet the depictions clearly cage the problems as a puzzle pieces that can be examined and understood and with understanding there's always hope.

I think they're brilliant. Take a look.

Presidential last names

2009-01-21T08:08:00.003-05:00

The Globe has an interesting read about the ancestry of presidents. Never knew this before:

"Even the two presidents whose presidential names were not their original surnames fall into the same ancestral corridor. President Clinton, originally William Jefferson Blythe, and Gerald Ford, originally Leslie Lynch King, took the names of stepfathers, but the old names, like the new, came from the British Isles."

President King. Now that would have been weird.

Ending Prohibition

2009-01-15T14:50:00.006-05:00

Culture 11 has a couple of excellent articles condemning drug prohibition: War on Drugs: The Price Tag by Anita Bartholomew and War On Drugs: The Collateral Damage by Radley Balko.

There's also a pro prohibition article called Keeps Drugs Illegal! but I found the arguments contained within very weak. The best part was a quip in the comments regarding the contention that legalization wont diminish the violence associated with the black market but I'll save you the trouble of looking it up.

"This is why I often see executives from Jack Daniels executing drive-by shootings at Jim Beam corporate headquarters. Wait... I don't see that at all."

Don't take me wrong, I do agree with most people that many drugs are dangerous and all should be kept away from children. I also agree that drug abuse is a problem. Where I disagree is in how we approach the problem.

The current 'drug war' approach is attempting to eliminate the problem by forcefully curtailing availability and creating a disincentive via the threat of incarceration. This works to a degree but it has a major flaw. It assumes the war is winnable and it's not.

People will always be looking for an easy path to happiness and it's profitable to facilitate that connection. That will never change. The fact that we live in a relatively free society makes that connection even easier. It will be a never ending war where the only winner will be the drug dealers who don't get caught and the police forces, prison operators and lawyer who get job security for life. It's a twisted codependency of rivals.

I think it's time we break that cycle and try a new approach.

The War word

2009-01-15T11:38:00.006-05:00

This post isn't political or at least I don't mean it to be. Given the subject matter, I'm sure it will raise some hackles and I apologize for that. I really only meant this to be about the word 'War'.

First some background. I'm a liberal product of the 60s and as such I grew up mocking the political euphemism 'Police Action' that was used to describe our involvement in Vietnam. If my recollection is correct, (forgive me, I was but a youngster), the arguments used to justify the phrase followed this simple reasoning: no war has been declared so it was not a war. As a young person that never sat well with me. We were bombing North Vietnam; we were in pitched battles with the North Vietnamese army; so not calling it a war was just silly word play by the people who wanted to continue the fight.

Time has proven that point. No one talks about the Vietnam Police Action anymore it's always referred to as the Vietnam War.

So hear I am 35 or so years later and I find myself in a semantic pickle. Everyone keeps talking about the Iraq war as if it's still going on. We certainly were in a war with Iraq but in my working definition of the word that war ended when Sadam's government collapsed and new government was established. We are still in Iraq and soldiers and civilians are still dying but is it really a war anymore? The circular irony is that I think the phrase 'police action' would be pretty darn appropriate.

George R. R. Martin Get Off Your Ass

2009-01-12T14:17:00.006-05:00

Sometime during the summer of 2008 I stumbled across the series of books known as 'The Song of Fire and Ice'. I was instantly smitten. There are four published books in the series and the author has promised at least another few.

The problem is Mr Martin is way overdue on the next announced volume called 'A Dance with Dragons' which, you can see from this posts accompanying image, already has cover art. The book's status was last updated on the author's web page over a year ago and various speculative publishing dates have come and gone with no word from the author. It's becoming very frustrating for the fans.

During the intervening time I've managed to entertain myself with some good reads. I'm especially fond of the series 'The Malazan Book of the Fallen' by Steven Erikson. Alas, this series is also incomplete but it is both further along in the story and the author has a better record of timely publishing.

The Malazan books are a fascinating but difficult series in many ways. At first I was turned off by a near pornographic level of violence but as I kept reading I became intrigued by the depth of the mysteries that Erikson unveils. He has created an amazing set of unique characters and places whose connections reveal an epic and ancient subtext. In addition, unlike so many of his peers who leave dangling plot lines, Erikson seems poised to wrap this twisted tale up in a tight knot. I'm really looking forward to completing it. Since I'm only 3 1/2f books into the 8 published of the 10 book series, perhaps I speak too soon, but I think not.

So there you have it George. I'm currently entertained, but this series wont last forever. Get off your tuckus and finish your damn book.

2 TB memory stick

2009-01-09T11:28:00.004-05:00

This image cracked me up. Link

I work for a Branch

2009-01-08T11:30:00.007-05:00

I'm starting to dislike the term 'Individual Contributor'. I was much happier being referred to as a developer or an engineer or even a simple staff member. Being called an 'individual contributor' is a bit dehumanizing. A manager is no more a collective than I am even though they may represent one.

Since I'm sure the term stems from some business school theory of hierarchical management I say we reverse things and apply software engineering terms for hierarchies back of the tree. I'm a Leaf and I work for a Branch, who works for another Branch who ultimately reports to Root.

I feel so much more human now.

Men of Honor

2009-01-05T12:46:00.002-05:00

Jayne and I spent one whole day this new year holiday engrossed in the HBO John Adams mini series. I'm certainly more Jeffersonian in my thinking and Jayne more Adamsian but we managed to emerge from its viewing with a shared sense of political purpose. It was a day well spent.

So it's with that backdrop that I today stumbled across a very humorous article by the irascible Fred Reed called The Price of Honor that skewers the concept of honor in particularly as it applies to Iraq war exit strategies. He takes great exception to the phrase 'peace with honor'.

While I tend to agree with his main thesis that we should end our occupation of Iraq as soon as possible, I take great exception with his pillorying of the concept of honor in general.

"Honor means nothing more than prickly infantile vanity dressed up, usually, in desperate class-consciousness. Of all the symptoms of a weak ego, honor is the most embarrassing, and the most harmful. In a right-minded society it would be made a capital offense."

The word honor has broad definition but I'll focus on the this one: The quality of being honorable; where honorable is defined as:

honest: not disposed to cheat or defraud; not deceptive or fraudulent; "honest lawyers"; "honest reporting"
worthy of being honored; entitled to honor and respect; "an honorable man"; "led an honorable life"; "honorable service to his country"
ethical: adhering to ethical and moral principles; "it seems ethical and right"; "followed the only honorable course of action"
estimable: deserving of esteem and respect; "all respectable companies give guarantees"; "ruined the family's good name"

What it does not mean but what Fred Reed seems to think it means is Pride. Peace with honor is a completely different thing than peace with pride. It's the conflation of these concepts that is the root of the problem.

Developingstorm 2009

2009-01-04T14:38:00.004-05:00

Hey World.

You still out there?

I've been doing plenty of sitting on my keister, enjoying the good life, but I haven't totally forgotten about the blog.

I spent some time today snazzing up the blogger template and hope to re-engage with the blog in some form or another. In the post Twitter and Facebook world I'm not always sure how to use this tool but I haven't given up trying.

I hope you're all having a good new year.

No place like home

2008-12-17T16:50:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the abrupt change but I've been having problems keeping up with changes to Rails that kept breaking blogging tool so I decided to go back and revive my original Blogger blog. As you well know, I don't post much anyway, so maintaining my own blog software was not something I really wanted to spend time on.

A new post on the old blog

2008-12-17T16:42:00.000-05:00

This is a test. This is only a test

OPENING DAY

2008-06-02T09:58:00.001-05:00

Fenway's diamond wrapped in green.
The sleeping jewel of Boston, the long-ago home
of the Babe and the Splendid Splinter,
Yaz and Fisk, born again on an April day.

All around, the Nation's red flowed
like blood down Beacon, Boylston and Brookline,
B's capping wide smiles, to fill the tiny seats
made for kinsmen from a different era.

Under the shadow of the The Green Monster,
Lansdowne street is littered with the jetsam of camped fans.
The hardy faithful who waited through the morning chill
for a ticket have drifted into the park like the steam from the griddle of a sausage vendors.
The smell of onions and peppers is as pervasive
as the calls for, "Get your hot sausage here".

We enter the park under bleachers to the swarm
of grown adults feeling the inspiration of Spring,
and long lines for beer and franks. The fans posing with
the statue of Wally act like the children they are again.

We fought the throng through the park's dark belly,
going against the flow, until a man yelled 'Make Way'
for a phalanx of blue coated officers escorting jeweled
rings toward the waiting lords of the diamond.
Two cold beers for fourteen fifty seemed cheap
as they sloshed in their plastic cups. Calls of
'Got cold beverage here', elicits laughs
but no fewer bumps.

Anonymous elbow to elbow
I climbed the ramp with Peter Gammons.
Just two fans emerging into the sunlight of a new season.
The man in front of me turns and stares for
a minute and exchanges pleasantries with
the famous one of us.

Ring ceremony, unfurled banners, and raised flags.
Tiny hands could be seen struggling to hold
the stretched corners of the billowing 2007 banner.
2004 would not be eclipsed so easily.
The ghosts of the curse reminds us one more time
just how special that season was.

During the game, big bellied men hid beers under their magic seats,
laughing and bellowing, 'Sheffield you bum'.
My wife took picture after picture after picture
and a self-proclaimed Fenway virgin cried at the spectacle,
as we all remember leaner days.

THE FLYING SQUIRREL

2008-05-01T09:50:00.000-05:00

The first trap held a leg.

The flesh gnawed at the knee

And pulled out at the hip.

The denuded femur

A translucent white,

Needle thin bone, so frail

Compared to the steel

Will displayed.

The second held a corpse.

A delicate, large eyed

Flyer, broken by the

Copper snap.

The blood stained fur

And missing leg told

The story well enough.

I removed the tiny body

Held it in my palm

And weighed its fate.

A ladle of pig iron

on the foundry trunnion

could not tip the scale.

Time to update your links.

2006-02-09T23:17:00.000-05:00

In the next few days I will be discontinuing this feed and moving all my new posting to my new Rails based blog. The new RSS feed is:

http://www.developingstorm.com/pete/blog/rss

If you're just interested in bookmarking the new blog, the URL is:

http://www.developingstorm.com/pete/blog

Dave in the Guardian

2006-02-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

I was trying to figure out how I should point out my friend Dave's mention in the Guardian Initially I planned to point the link and congratulate him, but that seemed rather pointless. I considered elaborating on our parallel careers; we've worked together at 3 companies and he was the person who brought me into Iris but 90% of my readers already know that so that's not very interesting. Then I considered writing an essay comparing Lotus Notes to the works of Thomas Pynchon - difficult to handle for the average person but beautiful to those who have persisted. As much as that sounds fun I have no time so you're stuck with this ramble instead. Congrats Dave! (via Bob).

Jumping Fish Movie

2006-02-04T17:42:00.000-05:00

I've seen fish jump before but nothing like this. You have to see this movie to believe it.

Gay Cowboys

2006-02-04T16:05:00.000-05:00

I was watching the old movie Tombstone last weekend and noticed something I hadn't before. Buried down among some secondary characters there are pretty explicit hints of a homosexual relationship. Jason Priestley's character Deputy Breckinridge becomes smitten with traveling actor Mr. Fabian as portrayed by Billy Zane. We get this view just from looks and smiles but it's clear this isn't simple brotherly love. The point it brought home near the end of the film when Breckenridge breaks down upon seeing the dead body of Fabien. It's not the same kissing and hugging that has people all uncomfortable about Brokeback Mountain but it's gay ~~cowboys~~ western characters, nonetheless.

Ancient Chinese Secrets

2006-02-01T23:10:00.000-05:00

Nice post by Andrew Johnson relating some old Chinese quotes and a fable relevant to the art of writing software.

Hello from the new blog

2006-01-29T23:29:00.000-05:00

This is my first offical post created with my new blogging tool I've been calling Dog. It's still a bit rough, so I will be dual posting on Dog and Blogger for a while until I work out the kinks. If you want to switch your RSS feed to the new system, subscribe to http://www.developingstorm.com/pete/blog/rss. You can find the regular html blog at http://www.developingstorm.com/pete/blog

I should never have left IBM

2006-01-26T10:18:00.000-05:00

Agile Web Development with Rails

2006-01-24T22:26:00.000-05:00

I've been reading the book Agile Web Development with Rails and building some Rails applications over the past few days. I like the book a lot. Previously, I had played around with Rails and read a few of the web tutorials but they all left me a bit underwhelmed. The tutorials all showed how you can get a lot done with just a few lines of code but none of them really teach you about Rails and how to use it. This book really filled in the gaps.

The book follows the standard format of starting out with a tutorial and then diving into a deeper analysis of the technology. The tutorial in Agile Web Development with Rails is more in-depth but still left me a bit cold. Where the book really started to shine is when it went deep on the underlying technologies. I've not finished the book yet, but the section on Active Record, the object relational mapping service used in Rails, alone was worth the price of the book.

With the help of the book I'm building a new blogging system I call Dog Blog. Why Dog Blog? Because I like dogs and it sounds funny. I know the world doesn't need another blogging system but it's fun to write and Rails makes if easy. My master plan is to move off of Blogger to Dog Blog at some point in the future, but I still have more Rails to learn and bunch more code to write before that will happen.

Time management in a feed happy world

2006-01-23T10:14:00.000-05:00

Time is a precious commodity and I never have enough of it. As I've complained before, my stack of unread books keeps growing, my list of pet projects I would like to work on is never ending and my thirst for knowledge (and beer) of all sorts is unquenchable.

I'm sure this is a truism of life but I've reached a point now where I need to reset some priorities. As much as I enjoy reading articles like The 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005 (on Redit), Company bets on woman to die quickly. Woman lives, company sues (on Metafilter) and the wealth of other interesting but frivolous tidbits that cross my path thanks to the likes of Digg, Slashdot, Kuro5hin and Memepool, I feel the need to make a late new year resolution. I'm going to unsubscribe all those feeds and try and forget all the URLs and live without those sources of trivia. I don't know if I'll use the extra time wisely, but It's worth a shot.

I've got Goose Bumps

2006-01-18T15:08:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I put on my headphones, dialed my iPod to play Neil Young's After the Goldrush (It was on my mind from my previous post), and sat down to do some coding. After 15 minutes or so of work I needed to do a full build, so I kicked that off, and opened a browser to do some reading. I quickly found this great Zeldman article titled Web 3.0 on A List Apart, and started to read. The weird coincidence is that as I reached the last paragraph of the piece - called "It's only castles burning" - Neil Young was singing the last verse from "Don't Let It Bring You Down".

Don't let it bring you down

It's only castles burning,

Just find someone who's turning

And you will come around.

This wasn't a loose overlap either. As my eyes parsed the sentence, Neil sang the exact words. Very, very cool.