CVS-friendly Document Format
Suppose, just suppose, there was a document-storage API that was friendly with a CVS-like versioning system. Imagine this API would do merges, diffs, and versioning, and that conflicts were reported such that they could be resolved in whatever WYSIWYG-type app you happened to be using.

I mention this because the current spate of word processing apps do not handle merging of different versions very well. In many apps, you can't merge at all. This kinda sucks. Document writers deserve the same kind of concurrent versioning as software engineers, yes? The it occurred to me: all documents deserve that kind of multi-author flexibility.

This means applications must be written to take advantage of a multiuser document store. But if there were a common document storage API, it would make life very, very easy, don't you think?

Anyway, just more rambling. I'm tired, and burned out. Can't you tell?

New Job
Looks like I'm leaving SEARHC, and going to work for a place in Cleveland. Top secret stuff, you know.

File System improvements
I think I'd like to see a filesystem with callbacks. That is, there should be a config file (similar to crontab, perhaps?) that lists a file or directory, and when that file or directory is accessed, unlinked, written to, or created, (configured for each event), a program is run with the name of the file or directory. So, I might have a configuration line like this:

/usr/web/docs:AUWC:/usr/web/bin/update_index

Perhaps you could even do pre-write and post-write filters.

Granted, if the filesystem were database-driven, this would all be automagic. But that presents performance and security issues. I know, there are security issues here, as well, but it could Play Nice with the filesystem.

Anyway, just some rambling.

Connections
Y'know, cable modems kick ass.

Yeah, they are just bigger, faster modems. Nothing fundamentally new. Broadband is, essentially, just another method of connecting to the internet.

But it's like going from a Ford Pinto to a Ferrari. Definitely an improvement.

I know. Chances are, *you* already have DSL, or cable. But this is Sitka, Alaska. Pop. 8500. Isolated-- there are no roads off the island. There are no other communities connected at all; it's just Sitka. Worse, it's on the outside of the Alexander Archepelago, which means we are isolated, even for Southeast Alaska.

So the fact that we have both DSL and cable is remarkable. It means the internet is truly coming of age, even if everyone who can use a freakin' web browser is a computer expert.

Fun Things
Just got back from Cleveland. I spent two weeks working with my brother at the company for which he works. Note I did this last year, as well. I don't feel as if I really earned my pay, this year. But it was a blast, planning big software projects, staying up late playing Marvel Super Hero vs. Street Fighter, drinking beer, and hanging out with Jeff and Dan and Zubin and Len. Very fun.

New Article
Looks like Sys Admin has published an article of mine. Pretty boring stuff, I'm afraid.

Privacy and Open Source
This whole "Smart Tags" thing has got me riled up. Even here on Advogato, seems there are quite a few MS apologists who think it's a good idea.

Maybe I am brimming with hypocricy. But doesn't it seem strange: some think it right to give up the one true power of the Internet-- the power of a single voice whispering to whomever wishes to listen-- to a corporation? Any corporation would be bad, but they wish to give up this power to the corporation that has shown time and again they are willing to ignore privacy issues and the rights of individuals simply for profit.

Okay, not simply for profit-- for the power over communication. For the right to substitute individual communication for Microsoft's communication.

The power of the Internet is the ability of one person to communicate to the world. Now Microsoft gets to step in and control that communication.

Yes, I'm stating this as a worse-than-reality scenario. But perhaps I value even the smallest of my rights; and I see this as yet another Microsoft gambit to control communication.

Free software programmers have, in my experience, valued privacy and freedom. With smart tags, Microsoft has effectively stated they control our communication (and thus, one major aspect of our privacy) by default. I will not allow Microsoft to control the definitions and values associated with the ideas I express to the world.

Now, all you apologists out there: Go ahead and give Microsoft control of the definitions of the words you use. But do it explicitly; don't let Microsoft claim birthright to our thoughts, which is essentially what they are doing, like a maggot whispering in your ear during every conversation you have, twisting the words in ways that suit only the maggot.

Force them to create a new tag to turn this "feature" on, not off. We can do it; we are powerful in our whispering, if we whisper together.

We live in an amazing universe, don't we?