Just making yet another token entry that, of course, no one will read because because the diary entry rating system more or less censors this post from anyone who doesn't have the patience or technical know-how to go to the address bar of their browser and change the threshold.

So I can look back on this moment in ten years (assuming Advogato will still be around), I think I'll make a post.

There's a time to try to convince someone they are wrong in the stupid and harmful things they are doing.

There's a time to complain (which is what I've done for so long in my rants and posts various places) in the hopes that your criticism might lead them to some introspection that changes their behavior for the better. In the end, that's what a flame really is. A flame is a desperate, last ditch effort to appeal to someone's better sense of judgement. Well, at least for me.

And then there's a time you've got to say that the other side will never, ever change. They will keep on doing the stupid and harmful activity, and they will keep on doing it for as long as they are allowed to do so, because that's their nature and they can't do otherwise. And the longer they are allowed to do it, the more people they will hurt. And it's at that point you either have to stand up and take the bastards on, or you have capitulate and admit that sometimes bad things perpetrated by bad people just happen in the world and it's pointless to try and do anything about it.

If you take the bastards on, both sides will get hurt and one will most likely get decimated. If you're lucky and you've got a few aces up your sleeve, it will be the other side. If you do nothing, you still hurt from lack of self-respect and from the knowledge you did nothing to stop something terrible from happening.

I need to look for the courage to do one or the other.

In other useless and trivial facts about my life at this point that I can look back on a decade from now:

• Woz is coming to NC State. Yes, I'm psyched.
• I'm writing a program that will make course registration at NCSU far easier.
• I'm seriously considering starting a LUG at NCSU to meet needs that the current one doesn't (namely, the needs anyone who isn't a flaming geek who uses linux in a non-server capacity). I've thought up a few interesting initiation rituals, but sad to say none of them involve goats or ointment.
• I'm still writing the content management system I'm using for my blog (the one that isn't censored), and still regretting my stupid idea of using the CMS for to manage my weblog while I'm still writing the damn thing.
• I'm working on an xml format for weblogs. I am debating whether this should be opened up for discussion so I can get input on what needs to go into the format. I do not believe that Dave Winer's "live and let live", "optional everything" philosophy has benefitted RSS, which is now abused in extremely perverse ways and comes in nine different flavors. Providing the end user a consistent and usable user experience is the most important thing for such a format, and I don't want it screwed up by the people who stole the web and created the horror we called XML Schemas.