Makin’ Bacon

I already knew a bunch of people at my new job: the company was founded by some guys I worked with several years ago. Plus, they just hired as development manager the guy I worked for at two jobs since then. And, they also just hired someone I worked with at yet another job. Someone commented yesterday that I’m the Kevin Bacon of the Austin software development universe. I’m not sure what to make of that.

Leading the Blind

Back when I was a sophomore in college at UT, I worked for Ralph Read, a blind professor of German. Dr. Read had diabetes and had gone blind a few years earlier, and when I worked for him, he had several undergraduate and grad students who helped him with various aspects of his work and personal life. (Dr. Read passed away from diabetes complications while I was still working for him in 1985)

My job was to drive Dr. Read to and from school each day and help him some with class preparations. But it’s our daily car trips from his house in south Austin to campus and back that I remember most fondly. Dr. Read prided himself on his listening skills, and every day he asked me about my life and listened politely as I went on about the concerns of a 21-year-old for pretty much the whole 20 minute trip.

Being a good listener is a difficult skill, and I try to keep Dr. Read in mind as I try to exercise that skill myself.

Southern Hospitality

I am a well trained Southern man: I try my damnedest to open or hold doors for women.

I remember when I moved to New Jersey, I was constantly stumbling over women as we approached a door. Finally, it occurred to me that door-opening is a delicate dance requiring the woman/women to move out of the way slightly to allow the man to get to the door. In NJ, the women weren’t playing the game. Hence the stumbling. This morning (in Austin), I was reminded another aspect of this Southern custom: the polite thank-you from the woman/women. As I was approaching the door to leave the bagel place where I stopped to get coffee, I saw a woman approaching from the outside. I was far enough ahead that I could push open the door, go through it myself and then hold it for her. But something told me even before I opened the door that this woman wasn’t going to play the game. Sure enough, it felt clear that she expected me to hold the door for her, but I didn’t get a look, a smile, a nod, and certainly no polite thank-you. After she passed, I gave her a loud “You’re welcome” anyway.

Messages from God

In her blog at The Village Gate, blogger “Renee in Ohio” writes about George W. Bush’s statements that God told him to act in regard to Iraq:

One thing I have noticed about the stories in the Bible about God talking to people and giving them a mission of some sort, is that they are usually reluctant at first. Moses is told that he will lead the people, and he tries to beg out of it–“You don’t want me. I’d be no good at that sort of thing. I’ve got this stutter, you know.”
Jonah, as my kids recently learned in the Veggie Tales movie, was told “Go to Ninevah.” Johah says, “Gotcha!” and promptly sets sail–in the opposite direction.
Whether these stories literally happened, or are an allegorical expression of the faith experience of a people, what stands out to me is the fact that God is often seen commissioning people to do things they find difficult. Challenging. Scary. Seemingly impossible, or at least implausible.
God seems pretty unlikely to say, “Attack Iraq, kill thousands of people, get oil contracts for your rich friends.” I don’t think Bush needed any higher power to tell him to do that. But apparently he needs to invoke a higher power to justify it.

Renee also offers a quote from Susan B. Anthony that I hadn’t heard before: “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”
Bingo!

Jesus says, “Don’t download music”

The issue of whether Christian young’uns should be sharing music via P2P has made a lot of news lately, even a Salon (premium) article. The Gospel Music Association (granted, not an unbiased party) recently released a study that concluded:

…born again Christian teens are not much different than are non-born again teens in terms of holding an anti-piracy moral position. Just 10% of Christian teens believe that copying CDs for friends and unauthorized music downloading are morally wrong, compared to 6% of non-born agains.

I find the attitudes that sharing music isn’t wrong interesting, and this is an interesting angle.

I certainly think that the recording industry is pursuing the wrong strategy by fighting music sharing tooth and nail. And it’s ultimately a doomed strategy. I think they’d be much smarter to embrace technology and find ways to make money from it, instead of desperately hanging on to the existing system.

But, regardless of whether the current laws are fair, the law is the law. It’s currently illegal to share music, and I struggle with that. I’m not saying I’ve never downloaded music. (I have, in fact, but I found it too much trouble). Also, I don’t think music sharing is any different from software piracy, and as a software developer, I can see who’s harmed by software piracy.

So, I struggle with the issue of following the law, regardless of my perception of its fairness. No answers, but I understand the public dialog.

Simplicity

A New York Times article discusses some designers’ call to simplify technology. These people claim:

There is too much needless complexity in the world, he argues. Technology, which was supposed to make our lives easier, has taken a wrong turn. In 20 years we’ve gone from the simplicity of MacPaint to Photoshop. While the first fostered a creative explosion, the second gave birth to an industry of how-to books and classes. And such complexity is commonplace, Dr. Maeda says. Despite the lip service paid to “ease of use,” “plug and play,” and “one-click shopping,” simplicity is an endangered quality in the digital world, he adds, and it is time to break free from technology’s intimidating complexity.

And of course they mention Microsoft Windows. I see their point, but they offer a tired argument. Can you do all the things with MacPaint that you can do with Photoshop? Of course not. PhotoShop (or Word, Windows, etc.) may have a zillion features, but these are programs with lots of users with very different needs. Sure, any individual user may only use a small subset of a program’s features, but there’s a group that needs every feature that’s been included. Contrary to what these folks imply, we aren’t just making things more complex for its own sake.

Pics of Waving man

This morning I took my camera in the car on my way to work, hoping to snap photos of waving man. Considering I see him at most maybe once a month, the chances were slim. But lo and behold, I did pass him this morning. But I had to turn around and come past him again in order to get photos. He didn’t seem to realize it was the same car that had passed the other way a minute before, and if he noticed me snapping photos as I passed somewhat slowly, it didn’t stop him from waving.
Amazingly, I managed to get a couple of decent photos and not crash my car.
Waving man
Waving man

…of mass destruction

Since I titled a recent post “Office Snacks of Mass Destruction,” I thought I’d investigate the use of the term “X of mass destruction.” A Google search for the phrase “of mass destruction” excluding the words “weapons” and “weapon” returns 41K+ results. Guess it’s an official cliche now. Glad to see I’m such a cutting edge trendsetter.

Some highlights of the search results:

  • Sales strategy article: Presentations of Mass Destruction
  • A recipe for Chicken satay of mass destruction
  • Infrequently updated Weblog of mass destruction (gee, that’s a surprise)
  • An eWeek article on patents of mass destruction