Advogato blog for nooks

17 Sep 2001

Mon, 17 Sep 2001 00:29:51 GMT

Working Search

The search has finally started; I sent my first five applications to any interesting jobs that didn't say they weren't interested in sponsoring a visa last night. Of course, it'll take until Tuesday local time to get any results.

I'm left wondering how difficult this was before the net made finding contacts and openings trivial.

9 Sep 2001

Sun, 9 Sep 2001 23:32:51 GMT

DVD Insanity

Why on Earth do people buy anti-DVDCCA shirts with the DeCSS code on the back, only to turn around and spend hundreds of dollars on DVD players and DVDs? It makes no sense.

I mean, helping out folks with their legal costs by purchasing shirts is all well and good, but the profits on any given DVD must be pretty amazing. Why help your supposed opponent? Why bother helping the opponents of someone you're supporting by purchasing their product?

29 Aug 2001

Wed, 29 Aug 2001 01:47:03 GMT

Girlfriend update

I said goodbye to Ann at Brisbane Airport's International Terminal yesterday; even though I only have to wait about 42 days before flying out to New York and meeting her again, I'm left a little sad and empty.

On the upside, I think I managed to introduce her to just enough of Emacs, Gnus, nethack and screen that she may be interested in learning more. Yea!

Hacking update

Nothing to report.

Work update

I'm seeking a US employer that will sponsor a H1-B visa; dice.com is a decent enough place to start looking, I think, but falls down for folks like me: I get plenty of results explicitly saying `No H1-B or third parties'.

There must be something better.

9 Apr 2001

Mon, 9 Apr 2001 21:31:29 GMT

Interior Decorating

sad, you need to take a look at what not to do to your new apartment.

2 Apr 2001

Mon, 2 Apr 2001 10:18:08 GMT

Brisbane sucks

ajv,

Sadly, your comments about Brisbane are pretty much on the mark. There are some nice places to go to eat (a couple of stores in the Valley, and some others in West End) and the relatively low cost of living (as compared against, say, Sydney) helps, but on the whole, yeah, it sucks.

The other thing you're right about is the racism that's so prevalent; it takes years and years to overcome the wowsers and actually get anything done, and the reputation Queensland cops have for low tolerance and a tendency to beat people is, in my opinon, still deserved.

I plan to never live further north than Brisbane until I move away from here.

When it comes to politics, at least the last time we had total right-wing loonies running the place was over ten years ago, as compared against Victoria's two years or so. Kennet never impressed me much. I can't say the tendency to blame Canberra for the world's troubles is an exclusively Queenslandish trait, either.

21 Mar 2001

Wed, 21 Mar 2001 03:41:42 GMT

Pervasive

dmerrill, stupidity and an inability to see some action is contrary to one's own self-interest (or perhaps to see one's own self-interest all too clearly) are both widely distributed traits.

Being a member of any minority does not enlighten anyone. Enlightenment on a topic comes from experiencing injustice, and thinking about it. Those who fail to think, or fail to think properly become the tragic pawns Shirer talks about.

Add in a fair amount of self-hatred inspired by incredibly negative portrayls of People Like You in the media and public perception, and you're left with a potent mix that can overwhelm an otherwise intelligent person.

I have seen queer people who lived through an oppressive right-wing regime go on to be apologists (or worse, advocates!) of the same regime when it is finally deposed.

5 Mar 2001

Mon, 5 Mar 2001 10:45:06 GMT

Off-topic? Pffff

ajv, I doubt deekayen is ever on-topic---in fact I joined Advogato after seeing how objectionable he was.

On-topic!

Gah, networked filesystems all suck. Coda isn't ``there'' yet, AFS will require kerberos, NFS is too skanky for words, and I'm not at all sure I've seen anything else that is mature. All I want is a network filesystem that supports multiple servers serving the same data with a minimum of fuss (yes, I know that's a lot to ask).

Grump.

Tummy bug

I'm slowly getting over living in my flat alone instead of with my girlfriend, but my body isn't making it any easier---all day I've been feeling like I want/need to relieve pressure from pretty much every orifice I have. Not pleasant. Maybe I'll take a sick-day tomorrow.

1 Mar 2001

Thu, 1 Mar 2001 04:55:24 GMT

Love is pain

The person I've been living with for the last six or seven months has decided to call it a day because I'm too much to deal with. I can't say I'm surprised, but finding out she was prepared to simply turn up with her family and remove her stuff from our flat without giving me any sort of notice is pretty steep.

I'm trying to not be too angry---after all, it's essentially my fault the relationship failed---but it's hard to not be upset at the inherent betrayl.

Ah well, life goes on. (And interfering and unscrupulous parents will ruin any otherwise successful relationship, it would appear.)

20 Feb 2001

Tue, 20 Feb 2001 09:53:14 GMT

I've started reworking the Killer Idea on a smaller scale to help think about design of the eventual OO implementation.

ajv, what've you got against bleep? Seriously, if NDAs suck, there's an easy solution: don't sign! I can count the number of NDAs I've signed on one hand.

2 Feb 2001

Fri, 2 Feb 2001 13:05:57 GMT

chromatic:

Thanks, I have a Perlmonks account (I'm sure you can take a stab at the username) and have found it incredibly useful from time to time. The author of HTML::TreeBuilder responded to me on a mailing list just today; I'll take his advice and see where it gets me (mind, if it doesn't get me far I know whose fault it will be, and it's not his!).

I thought your name looked familiar.