5 Mile Run: Neighborhood - June 29, 2005

It was very hot (90 degrees) and I ran out of steam, but pushed on. I was disappointed to see how slow I went, but felt good when I was done. I did come back hard after laying for 2 weeks for the bum ankle. So, I should just relax and know the pace will return.

Data:

Distance: 5
Time: 50:26
Average heart rate: 161
Pace: 10:05

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood - June 28, 2006

It was a hot 85 degrees with clear skies at 4:30 in the afternoon. I took off from the house feeling great. I played the Cars on the mp3 player. Man, this CD brought back some great memories. I love to jam to this old stuff sometimes. It was a pleasant run.

Data:

Distance: 3
Time: 28:43
Average heart rate: 158
Pace: 9:34

Bob's Rant #4 - Mission Accomplished?

So, members of Congress want George Bush to set a timetable for leaving Iraq. He says no timetable until mission accomplished. Huh. Wait a minute, don't I remember a large banner claiming mission accomplished on the deck of ship behind Mr. Bush? So, why aren't the troops home. OK, I'm sure that for Mr. Bush that the major combat and post major combat missions are 2 different missions and he can explain them away. But, Mr. Bush is also quite guilty of arrogance and myopic thinking. His way or the highway.

I am sure that he means well and that he really believes everything he says (or least I hope so). However, we would all do well to keep reminding ourselves that this war is about more then Mr. Bush would have us believe. His WMD and Al Queda link postulates from the pre-war build up were crap then and now. But, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he believed these 2 premises. I think the bigger picture goes back to positions he had established for himself before 9/11. Thus, 9/11 provided the vehicle to act on already existing biases for Mr. Bush as it applies to Iraq.

The Afghanistan mission was well justified and would appear to have been above board and honest. Good job here George.

So, the biggest problem with our Iraq policy is simply the continued failure to just be honest with ourselves. The mission isn't and wasn't accomplished. The mission hasn't even been clearly spelled out most of the time. Not to mention the degree of failure for us to predict outcomes. The dancing in the street sure didn't last long or occur in many places. So, perhaps the "real" reasons we are there are a little more complex and covert. Maybe, George wanted to give those with a Will and a Way to kill Americans a place to go where we could kill them? That may not be such a bad idea. Why fight them here, if we can fight them there? I might even support this policy. It is not based on hate or discrimination based on religion, creed, gender or anything else. If you have the Will and a Way to kill Americans, then we should mercifully and ruthlessly eliminate you. Our survival may depend on it.

But, to build a case for killing and dying on false premises, is an unforgivable act, so we better be sure first. We went too soon and for the wrong reasons, in my humble opinion. I do support our troops. But, I think their efforts could have been better invested.

The whole mess reminds me of previous thoughts I have had after reading Thomas Merton, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and other pacifists. The more we divide and classify humans, the more easily we can excuse, explain the reasonableness for one group killing members of other groups. Shame on us. All of us. The extremists are wrong. We are wrong. Killing is wrong. One planet, one people, please. That said, I can tell you this is obviously more easily said then done. And, until we can find a way to justly deal with all people and wars do not take place, I hope I stay on the "most right" side. America is probably as close as one can get to most right. And, I do not support setting around waiting for the extremists.

So, Mr. Bush let's take the fight to the extremists. But, let's be extremely careful to avoid the innocent, choose our targets well, and by all means, tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

9 Mile Run: Shades Creek Greenway - June 26, 2006

This run starts at the Brownell building like my big 11 mile circle. And, it is starts at 6:30 am too. Although, I was about 15 minutes late today. From Brownell, I run down lakeshore towards the Brookwood Village mall. Once past the mall, the entrance to the Shades Creek Greenway. At the end of the Greenway, I run left through the parking lot, then left again. At the end of the street, I turn around and run the same route back.

Since I was late, I saw all the other runners returning on my way out. I listened Third Eye Blind, Blue and Toad the Wet Sprocket, I don't remember the CD title. Both were perfect for the run today. It was humid and I sweat a mighty amount. But, all-in-all a good feeling run.


Data:

Distance: 9
Time: 1:21:32
Average heart rate: 162
Pace: 9:32

Podcast Update #2

This and all future podcast updates will simply be new posts; no more moving content to comments and updating the same post each time. I am not sure why I started out thinking that was better. Silly me.

I listened to the following podcasts from ITConversations:

Tom Hoffman and Tim Lauer talked about Remixing Wikis with Rendezvous, Web Services and SchoolTool. This was an interesting podcast about how they used Wiki and the other technologies listed in the title to help teachers assign work to students who subsequently used the same technologies to complete their work. Very innovative and interesting. They also mentioned a term called Instiki (corrected spelling thanks to Tom Hoffman, tks) that I will have to learn more about before I can say much.

James Goodnight, CEO SAS, talked about growing and sustaining a business perpetually. If you don't know much about the culture at SAS, this is a very interesting podcast. I am already familiar, not from first hand experience. Still, it was interesting to hear straight from the horse, if you will. Two take-aways: 1) Take care of your people, 2) charge for your license to your software. Interesting comments in these days when open source is so popular.

Bob Cox, Media Bloggers Association , talked about setting up and managing the Media Bloggers. I found the political implications and his discussions about the interaction between some of the mainstream media giants and his bloggers very interesting. He talks about the interaction between bloggers and mainstream media from a variety of aspects. Mainstream media is not always warm to the criticism from these bloggers. And, given the financial assets of existing media giants, they can apply legal pressure directly to individuals and in the shape of legislation. Let's hope it doesn't ultimately mean less free speech. Excellent podcast.

Finally, I am taking Tracks Up a Tree off of my subscription list. I subscribed to check out Indie music. This podcast doesn't pick music that matches my taste in general. I don't think that is a negative criticism, just not a match. I also think there is too little music and too much talk. That can be OK if I find the talk interesting. In this case, I don't. Sorry, Funtime Ben. I am sure many disagree with me. That's cool.

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood - June 24, 2006

I picked up the pace today. I did have to consciously attend to the pace while running to do so. I guess I was just getting to relaxed and stuck into a rhythm. Time will tell, eh? Anyway, it felt good despite the hear (90's).

I listened to the latest Tracks up a Tree podcast. I am gradually discovering that this particular podcast just isn't my cup of tea. I just have a different taste for music. More significantly for me, this podcast was my only subscription dedicated to music. And,well, music is what I want. They talk too much. Sorry guys (funtime Ben and crew). No slight, cast-on, just not for me.

Data:

Distance: 3
Time: 28:36
Average heart rate: 163
Pace: 9:32

5 Mile Run: Neighborhood - June 22, 2006

I am still running slow, but I did break the 10 minute mile barrier. Now, that I have had a few runs at a 10 minute per mile pace, I am reminded of my own arrogance as a youth. I can remember when I thought I would never run that slow. I am appropriately ashamed. Pace does not matter if you wish to run. The important part is simply the run. Your pace, distance, and time are just artifacts. Enjoy the run!

I listened to the Blackeyed Peas, Elephunk. Damn, I love this CD. I plan to get their new this weekend. I hope it is at least nearly as good.

Data:

Distance: 5
Time: 49:46
Average heart rate: Neglected to record
Pace: 9:57

3 Mile Run: Neighborhood - June 21, 2006

The ankle seems to be healed. Yeppee! I am still running slow, but expect the pace will pick up as I get my condition back after a few more runs. I am going to jump back in to the old schedule, but hold back a few miles on the long run. I was considering running the Peavine Fall run on July 4th. But, given the rugged terrain and such, I have decided not to run it to give the ankle more time to heal completely.

Temperature was hot, of course. But, clear skies. I caught up on a couple Dawn and Drew podcasts.

Data:

Distance: 3
Time: 30:05
Average heart rate: 158
Pace: 10:02

Note: I have decided to just add entries to this blog rather then constantly copying the most recent entry into a comment prior to making a new entry for podcast and running log entries.

Bob's Rant #3 - Parents - Don't Let Your Children Have Sleepovers with Adults!

OK. Michael Jackson was found "Not Guilty". Adam Curry, in a recent podcast, rants that we Americans are violating our own ideals if we reply to that as "Not Guilty" does not mean "Innocent". Good point and I agree in principle. He has met Michael. He doesn't believe from his personal experience with Michael that Michael could be guilty of the charges against him. I don't know Michael personally. I don't know anyone involved in the case personally. But, I am assuming that the pornagraphy that the police found was there before they got there. Michael has some kind of interest in sex. Apparently, he had some elaborate warning system to let him know if someone was approaching his bedroom. And, a few more such details, ignore the fact that children slept with him, imply that he is not asexual. If it were as simple as that, then I would say "so what". A grown man with a ton of money wants to buy and use porngraphy in his bedroom and not get caught doing so. I am ok with that.

I am even ok with that this same person being around children in all reasonable contexts. An interest in porngraphy does not a pedophile make. Plenty of non-pedophiles have an interest in porngraphy. Personally, I suspect that Michael has an unusual and potentially dangerous interest in children. It has not been proven in court.

But, what really burns my ass is this: what reasonable parent would knowingly permit their child to sleep with an adult male who is not an extremely close family member. Even then, one would assume that typically there is no reason for such arrangements for most children. Especially if the place where the child is staying has many, many rooms. I don't care who the adult male is. It ain't right; it ain't normal. Those parents are GUILTY of child endangerment. You just don't put children at risk in this regard.

There is some kind of symbiotic and disturbing relationship between Michael and these families if you ask me.

Bob's Running Log

Lest you think all I do is speak geek, let me get the running log going.

June 1, 2005: Birmingham, AL - 3 Miles: Neighborhood
This is the first run since the ankle/knee injury 2 weeks ago. The run went good despite the 90 degree temperatures. It is good to be running again. I listened to a Dawn and Drew Show podcast and just took it easy. No pain!

Data:

Distance: 3
Time: 30:13
Average heart rate: 165
Pace: 10:4

---

Format: I will always post the most recent log entry here on the main page. I will copy the last post and add it as a comment to this post. When I run in new places, I will Bold-Color the name of the place in the entry and describe the route.

Bob's Podcast Log

Podcasting is cool

I read about podcasting and Adam Curry's (yes, from MTV history) contribution to it in Wired recently. I found the idea of putting content I selected based on my interests on my mp3 player for listening when it is convenient for me attractive. So, I have started subscribing to some podcasts and listening regularly. I am enjoying it immensely. I highly recommend it. My favorites so far are:

Keepers:

• Adam Curry's Daily Source Code : Entertaining and packed with podcasting info
• ITConversations (o-safe) : Straight up tech speak frequently from the so greats
  
  June 18. 2005:
  
  Brendan Eich, Mozilla Foundation spoke about Building and Surviving Remixable Applications. This presentation will most interesting to those using and, most particularly, contributing to Mozilla based browsers.
  
  June 16, 2005:
  
  Stewart Butterfield, Flickr on Web Servvices as a Strategy for Startups. This was a reasonably good presentation. Short, sweet, but not much new for me.
  
  Tim O'Reilly and Rael Dornfest, O'Reilly Media, deliver a great presentation titled O'Reilly Radar: News from the Future. The talk about design patterns and one of the ideas they play with is the influence of open source on these patterns. Based on looking at what is a common practice and turn that into a prescriptive patterns:
  
  * Design for participation
  * Small pieces, loosely joined
  -- Architect software or service so it can be added as a component
  -- Document interfaces
  -- Be modular
  -- Using licenses that don't hinder recombination
  * User-centered development
  -- Release early, release often
  -- Set up feedback loops - bug reports, patch submissions
  -- Promote most active participants to more roles of more responsibility
  * Glue together pieces of other and share
  * Perpetual beta - show to the users frequently, react frequently
  
  They deliver good examples and illustrations around each of these.
  
  Doug Engelbart, Bootstrap Institute, on Large-Scale Collective IQ. A very interesting presentation on how we acquire, use, and transcend knowledge. Doug was heavily involved in some of the cornerstone developments of computers like the invention of the mouse. This is an excellent presentation.
  
  
June 4-5, 2005: Catching up on some podcasts!


1. Thomas Malone, Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management -- offers us a Perspective on how the reduction in costs to communicate offer interesting opportunities for business. Namely, that the modern technology offers the opportunity for small groups and individuals to behave as they do best in regards to control (small, autonomous, creative, etc.) while interacting and behaving on the behalf of a larger organization. It is the speed at which information is shared that drives such innovation with in a large enterprise. Interesting perspective and a recommended listening.
2. Don Katz, Audible.com talks about voice-based web content during a Web Talk. You can almost read this as a talk about podcasting. He talks about Audible's experience and about the future of this type of experience. Good talk.
3. Charles Phillips, President, Oracle Corporation talked about, you guessed it, Oracle at Software 2005. This is an interesting presentation if you are interested in Oracle's on-going strategy or ERP architectural concepts in general.
4. Paul Graham talks about Hackers and Painters. A good presentation, but after listening I found I was less interested in his thesis and its support. Others, could easily disagree with me.
5. Alex Steffen and Bruce Sterling talk about fixing ecological problems at South by Southwest Interactive 2005. Extremely interesting presentation. One of my favorite points made in this presentation is how situations like Philadephia's experience with public wi-fi and Verizon's lobbying may take innovation to so-called developing nations where they would welcome the innovation. Don't get me started on stem-cell research and George W.'s arcane position.
   
• The Dawn and Drew Show! : Just hilarity
  
  May 1, 2005: They have joined PodShow. This was announced by Adam Curry during his PodShow podcast. Apparently, a number of their listeners think they have sold out. There is nothing wrong with making a living from one's art. There is nothing wrong with being shaped by the receptiveness of others to your work (read as market forces). I find it amazing that some folks place so much credence to some notion that one must take a vow of poverty to be creatively "pure". Money is the medium by which we barter. There is no free ride and to earn a living doing what one loves is cool.
  
• Tracks Up the Tree: Indie music, good variety and generally good choices.

Not for Me'rs:

• L0Life : The author and I share similar social/political bias, but our analysis styles differ. No slight intended at all, just not my cup of tea.

Warning: Some of the podcasts contain language and content some would find objectionable. I thought I should just warn you just in case. I put "o-safe" by those I suspect will never contain content some would consider objectionable.

Bob's Rant #2 - Don't Try to Control Me!

In the May 2005 issue of Runner's World, Vera "Somebody" authored a letter in response to an article in the previous issue about good musical stuff to run to. She began with "As a RRCA-certified" (man, can hear it coming already....). Of course, she proceeded to provide an unwanted tirade on the dangers of running with headphones. Does she and similar minded people really think they have a "snowball's chance in hell" of winning over those of us that simply disagree with her. NO. I don't care who she is certified by. If I was asking her for running advice, I would apply it after screening it through my own evaluation.

Does she really think it is as simple as "headphones are dangerous if you run on the road"? She states 2 primary reasons: need to listen to surroundings and breathing, and need to protect our ears from hearing loss. To add insult to injury, she is offering her admonition because of the likelihood that blessing use of headphones sends the wrong message to beginning runners. Those damn impressionable new runners are so easily perverted. Give me a break!

Such an unbalanced, I am holier than thou attitude would never earn much credibility in my book. Hearing loss is not caused by headphones. It is caused by volume and duration. Mp3 players have controls to allow us to control volume and duration. As to the notion that running on streets is dangerous if you can't hear everything in your surrounding, is Vera suggesting that if you have hearing impairment you are restricted to the treadmill? I wonder if she drives in a convertible with no radio, CD, Tape player, cell phone.... etc. I mean, come on, you want to make sure you know what's going on around you! Riding in a car while distracted, now that's dangerous.

Vera, put some balance in your life. Not every run is for training and requires attending to breathing. Some, yes. I bet you offer good advice for serious running. But, if I choose to just run for fun while jamming on streets I estimate to have low risk of dumbass drivers, that is none of your freaking business! Don't shame me just because I don't agree with you. (Her letter included "Shame on you").

Bob's Rant #1

Mr. Bush, No Infomercials on Thursday Nights, Please!
I follow 3 TV programs: Survivor, The Apprentice, and CSI: Criminial Intent. The first 2 air on Thursday night. I sure wish Mr. Bush, could do his infomercials about his political agenda to which he is garnering little support on some other night beside Thursday. Perhaps, he should find a better, different way to sell his agenda. Or, perhaps he needs a better agenda and a more inclusive style, but I digress. The bottom-line is, leave my Thursday nights alone.

What is the long-term impact of Open Source?

I added a new comment on April 22, 2005.

As a technologist who makes his living writing, planning, managing source code and its artifacts, I continually ponder the long term impact of the seemingly on-going intrusion (not meant to be a pejorative term) of open source. Open Source brings lots of innovation and is represented by some 82,000 projects on Sourceforge alone. In my professional capacity, we are embracing and participating in more and more open source projects. In fact, I chair our "Open Source Steering Committee". The purpose and objective of this committee is to make sure that we don't inadvertently expose our proprietary and copyright protected intellectual property (IP) from becoming obligingly covered by an open source license and thereby free. We intend to ensure we participate to meet a reciprocal responsibility too. Particularly, for those open source projects we choose to use, we fully intend to encourage our teams to contribute back to the projects. Again, taking care not to blend our copyright protected content from being placed into these open source projects. So, this amounts to reviewing each target open source project for its strategic value to our overall solutions and services to ensure:

• The license does not create any concerns for use with a commercial package
• The project fits nicely with our architectural and business goals
• We can use and contribute to the project without inappropriately blending proprietary and open source

This week, I introduced a topic and a speaker at conference on the subject of open source. The conference was attended by customers using our software. Most of them are probably using open source internally in various ways. I basically led with the corporate and somewhat conservative lines. My part included references to the pervasiveness of open source in terms of its breadth of function, reliability, adoption, etc. But, I didn't go too deep or make it sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread. The next speaker actually leads an open source project. He went deeper and to some folks may have sounded as if the whole world could be managed on open source software (he didn't go quite that far really).

Nonetheless, the conversations this presentation kicked off amongst the managers and executives (that was the audience) was thought provoking and interesting to me. For example, one person mentioned the "tragedy of the commons". If open source is designed, built, and managed by programmers working for free as driven by their passion, what stops the entire process from imploding? If it is not the demands of the market that drives creativity, then how does the artisan make a living? I am sure I don't have all of the answers for these questions. Does anyone? This assumes, of course, that open source levies a large threat to commercial software enterprises. Or, that commercial enterprises can not both embrace a profitable and market driven business model while maintaining professional technologists that participate in open source projects as part of their job. What is the relative make up of the "typical" open source project in terms of the number of contributors that are contributing for free versus those contributing as part of their paid job?

As I peruse the multitudes of companies and individuals participating, using, and influencing open source software development, it seems to me that companies are experimenting with a variety of business models. From projects that began as traditional shrinkwrap software that open sourced the software and built their business plan around services, to large traditional players (like IBM and others) that clearly spend investment dollars and time on open source projects. I assume these traditional players are hoping to drive others sales (hardware, services, etc.) by increasing the attractiveness of particular and targeted open source packages. But, where is it going? What is the implication for large, conservative software vendors and IT departments in large corporations? Should they help maintain and increase the momentum behind software development processes that at times seems to imply that all software should be free (at other times this seems to be more of an objective not an implication)? So, I am going to be reading the following in my spare time to try to formulate an opinion of my own:

• Why Software Should Be Free by Richard Stalman
• The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric Steven Raymond
• A Second Look at the Cathedral and the Bazaar by Nicholas Bezroukov
• "Sharing Nicely": On shareable goods and the emergence of sharing as a modality of economic production by Yochai Benkler

Is it ethical for a software vendor that earns its living by selling software to take advantage of open source to enhance the value its customers get while using the open source package alongside the commercially produce package? The lesser general public license and the BSD license would certainly lead one to think this is the case.

I wonder where this is all going for my industry (systems for financial services-insurance). If open source continues to provide viable elements for growing sectors of software stacks, does this begin to threaten the very nature of the labor force that builds and maintains software for a living? Or, does the mechanisms for how money is made from writing code simply change, and if so, how? Don't most programmers earn their pay today by meeting requirements defined, planned, and managed by non-programmers? I met a prolific participant in the open source community that said that one of the exciting parts of participating in open source as a programmer is to create a more technically pure and quality result then one can create at their paid job? At work, one must write code not only in response to requirements and quality standards, but on a specified time schedule. So, what happens when the "right" solution will take too long? Hum...create the best you can in the time you have....

More ramblings to come... (I will add them as Comments to this post - others may comment too)

Blog? What to blog?

A friend suggested I get involved in the blogsphere. I have been a lurker of sorts. Mostly viewing blogs when I got hits based on searches. But, I am forced now to ask myself, "why blog".

Why Blog?

• Like many times in my life, I am going to just start [to blog] and see what emerges. I fear that this may be yet one more opportunity for me to sharpen my narcissistic tendencies. I hope not. It may provide me an opportunity to keep a log of my life that I will appreciate and reminisce about as I age. Perhaps, others will view these posts and find comparisons and contrasts to their own lives. Who knows where that could lead?
• My father-in-law and others I respect keep paper logs and find that doing so adds value to their life. Of course, these logs are private and not shared. So, one of my first questions about blogging is: How much should I reveal about myself? I expect that I will wax and wan overtime. Thus, I will post stuff only to later edit and delete it.
• I have a strong interest in technology, especially software engineering. Maybe, this blog will be an opportunity for others to join me in my constant voyage of discovery in this realm.