Some Links

I’d been meaning to put these two items on here a while back, but keep forgetting.

In the spirit of the recent wave in documentaries and my (somewhat) interest in them, I ran into a documentary called “Revolution OS”. I guess I must have expected something like this to pop up. This movie is a good look into the Open Source movement and other things relating to it, such as Linux. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the movie is readily available, but the trailer and the song they have on their website is a nice watch!

On a different- yet still geeky- note, I read about an interesting option that is in the works for the user interface of computers. Considering that we live in a 3D world, it would seem like an obvious choice to extend those notions to the desktop world. Well, Sun Microsystems is doing just that. Their project, called Looking Glass is aimed at that. There’s a good movie on their site that shows some of the features of this project (here’s the link).

Choose Life

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family, Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life.

- Irvine Welsh

Azeri Poetry

I was reading an Azeri poem, and I realized (again) how beautifully the imagery in eastern poetry is used. Each verse is perfectly set, and I can’t help feeling nostalgic with each line I read.

I apologize to the non-Azeri (Turkish) speaking among the readers. I will try and translate it at a later time.

Code Change

After a over a week’s work- well, it was really about an hour each day- the new changes to the site are ready to be published. For those of you that might care, I have moved from using PERL to using PHP in my scripts on the site. I’ve changed my files to be completely dynamic, and as you can probably see, some of the aesthetics of the site have also changed. I have to admit, I’m happy with what I’ve done and I think this back-end will stick around for a while. Having done all that, the server is acting oddly, and I have to do some more setup work to get PHP working here. I’m gonna leave this half-finished and I’ll come back to it later.

Or if you weren’t here for the tech-talk, check out the new tune.

…continuing

I didn’t know what to say about his writing. He was bothered by something that I had never experienced in that way. I still didn’t know what was exactly going on. A few more minutes of talking, and I realize that he’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He doesn’t think he has a problem himself. And I can understand that. No one wants to give in. Professional medical advice or not. We all like to think we’re perfectly fine. Denial is a good tool for all of us.
He still looks all around the room before he can get a sentence out. And he changes his position on the chair every minute or so. Later on, he admits he’s had a problem with alcohol and drugs. That he’s been through programs to help him with his problems. And I can only make a guess as to whether it’s been long since he got rid of his habits.
After this introduction, we talked about almost everything. He told me about his experiences and his history. How he has travelled all over the US. Sleeping where he can. Just living the nomad life. He seems like a very intelligent person. C has an interesting point of view on a lot of different issues. And having studied to be a journalist, I see that he has the critical view point of a journalist.

His visit was a nice reminder of the real world that exists outside the campus life. That people have to deal with more unbearable truths than me and most other students my age. Here I am completely immersed in something not too unlike a rate maze. I do a certain sequence of (somewhat) inconsequential tasks. I am rewarded for them and given a pellet, or degree. And in my four years I have not made much contribution to the society that welcomed me here. I’ve not made life any easier for people like my own neighbour! I would not have known of his problem had he not approached me. And really, how many “residents” of this city do I know?

C left after two hours. He had mentioned that he read and enjoyed a certain magazine. I happened to read that same publication a while back and had a few copies around the house. I lent him a copy. Not so I could feel better about anything. Just so there is an excuse for more interaction between the two of us.