OFB 3.0

Mike came pretty close on guessing about the mystery image, so I'll give him the 20 asisaid points. Here's the real thing:

The new logo is part of the unveiling of the third major “release” of Open for Business. In its first iteration, which I launched five years ago this day (October 5), it was intended to focus on linking to useful articles on migrating to Open Source software. Eventually, the plan was to include some white papers on migration projects and so on. Within a few months, however, OfB, as it came to be known, seemed to naturally flow into a site with some original commentary and news pieces outside of the narrow realm of Open Source migration, so in late April of 2002, I announced a “new OfB.”

This new OfB focused primarily on original content, shoving non-original works off to the side somewhat. This was probably a smart move: there were so many sites that linked to interesting articles, another site that did just that would never have had the draw that OfB did during its height. This height was heightened with the partnership with the defunct LinuxandMain, along with KernelTrap, DesktopLinux and LinuxDevices to form LinuxDailyNews, a loose affiliate network that helped bring the stature of our small, independent sites up a bit in the world of Internet.com and OSDN. That launched on July 4, 2002, ushering in “wIndependence Day.”

2002 was also the year that OfB broke its first major story. In late July, I caught wind of some really stupid dealings of Red Hat toward KDE with regards to an upcoming LinuxWorld expo and wrote a piece that dealt with the issues. It quickly spiraled much larger than I expected and, within hours, Red Hat would offer KDE several RHL systems to use to demo KDE 2.x at the upcoming expo. Many other major articles and interviews appeared, especially with the excellent contributions of my two partners in crime and brothers in Christ, Eduardo and Ed.

With the help of those same two, and a new more general mission to comment on anything interesting about life, the universe and everything, OFB returns after taking its first hiatus for the last six months. The new OFB sports an all new look and an update of its long time ball logo. It also is powered by my SAFARI CMS; the old site ran on a modified version of PHP-Nuke, and I regretted picking that CMS for almost the entire time the old site was up.

Today's launch is only the beginning, so I hope you'll make a habit of visiting OFB and enjoying the exciting new content that will be appearing there in the upcoming days and weeks.

Tomorrow's the Big Day

On October 5th, the mystery object will no longer be a mystery.

The Open Door

Well, Evanescence's the Open Door has finally been released. I've been sort of fascinated with this release, not only because I really enjoyed Fallen, but also because I wanted to see what their first real post-Christian music release would sound like. For those not familiar with the group, since the band's founders at least previously claimed to be Christian and Fallen had some clearly Christian-flavored lyrics, it was briefly marketed at Christian bookstores, until a rather odd tirade by Amy Lee and Ben Moody, the co-founders, caused the label to pull the CD from the Christian market. I'm not sure whether Lee or the newer band members consider themselves Christians as of right now or not. At any rate, unlike Fallen, the Open Door is being marketed exclusively as a secular CD.

Moreover, it is the first release lacking Ben Moody, who not only co-founded the band, but was also the writer of the song that originally attracted me to the group, “My Immortal.” Given that I think Moody soften up the band's heavy sound a bit, I was wondering whether I'd like the Open Door or not. Even Fallen pushes the limits on what I can stand in music. I like it, but the heavy guitar sections of the CD come close to being too much for me.

From the iTunes 30 second preview clips, I'm not entirely sure of the Open Door, but at least several of the songs sound like they have potential. I've already heard “Call Me When Your Sober” on the radio, and it was pretty good; it is a bit different than their previous work while still maintaining the essential sound of the group.

I'll probably order the CD soon — in case anyone is interested, I'll post a review sometime after I hear the whole thing.

Elegy

There is something especially haunting and beautiful about the Anglo-Saxon elegiac poem. Reading too many of them in a row can be terribly depressing, but at the same time, I miss reading them if I haven't done so in a long time. For History of the English Language, I'm learning how to pronounce Old English; while looking up some material related to that, I ran into a reference to Deor, one of the most impressive of the Old English elegies (in my opinion).

I think it is memorable because it is easy to sympathize with the poet. Before getting to his own problems, he tries to think of all kinds of horrible past events that others have experienced and then remarks, “As that passed away, so may this.” I too like to try to make myself think maybe this or that problem isn't quite so bad by thinking of how others have made it through worse events. The final exclamation to each stanza is a reminder that suffering is only temporary, but it also pounds in the whole sense that life is transitory. Hence, the poem is also a sobering reminder when things are going well: that passes away too.

If you're so inclined, you might want to read Deor, if you have not already had the pleasure of doing so. A fairly literal, if not wonderfully readable translation is located here.

GPS and Photos

I haven't ironed out all of the bugs, but I've started geotagging my photographs. Using the wonders of technology, I can match the date stamps hidden inside each digital photo (using JPEG's EXIF data) against my waypoint log on my new Garmin Foretrex 101 GPS unit. Doing so allows my photos to get fairly precise coordinates that can then be used to show them on Google Earth. “Say, where's that photo I took down on the Katy Trail by the Page Ave. bridge? I'll just look in Google Earth.” I also understand Apple's Spotlight search can do some geographical searching, though I've not tried it yet.

The easiest to use Mac program for the job crashes on my main computer and another one requires taking over iPhoto's job as my photo organization tool, so for the moment I'm using a Perl script to handle the geocoding process of matching the GPS's GPX log to the JPEG files. Hopefully I can get my preferred application choice to quit crashing (it doesn't crash on my Mac mini), but even with the added hassles of my current temporary solution, it is really amazing to get to look in Google Earth and see where I've walked and what photos I took along my path.

I'm sure I'll be posting more on this in the coming days. If you haven't yet figured this out, getting the data off my new GPS unit was why I was complaining about serial devices the other day. I had to buy a serial to USB adapter to get it to work on my “legacy free” computers. sigh

Do You Have a B.C.?

I heard this from my pastor this evening at Alpha:

[My friend is a rather old-fashioned lady, always quite delicate and elegant, especially in her language. She and her husband were planning a week's vacation in Florida, so she wrote to a particular campground and asked for a reservation.

She wanted to make sure the campground was fully equipped, but didn't quite know how to ask about the toilet facilities. She just couldn't bring herself to write the word “toilet” in her letter. After much deliberation she finally came up with the old-fashioned term “bathroom commode.” But when she wrote that down, she still felt that she was being too forward. So she started all over again, rewrote the entire letter, and referred to the bathroom commode merely as the B.C. “Does the campground have its own B.C.?” is what she finally wrote.

Well, the campground owner wasn't old-fashioned at all, and when he got the letter he just couldn't figure out what the woman was talking about. That B.C. business really stumped him. After worrying about it for a while, he showed the letter to several campers, but no one could imagine what the lady meant, either. He knew that the Joe-kster lived in British Columbia, but that wasn’t what the lady was referring to. So the campground owner, finally coming to the conclusion that the lady must be asking about the location of the Baptist Church, sat down and wrote the following reply…]

Dear Madam: I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take the pleasure of informing you that a B.C. is located nine miles north of the campground, and is capable of seating 250 people at one time. I admit it is quite a distance away if you are in the habit of going regularly, but no doubt you will be pleased to learn that a great number of our people take their lunches along and make a day of it. They usually arrive early and stay late. If you don't start early, you probably will not make it in time. The last time my wife and I went was six years ago, and it was so crowded we had to stand up the whole time we were there. It may interest you to know that right now, there is a supper planned to raise money to buy more seats. They're going to hold it in the basement of the B.C. I would like to say it pains me very much not being able to go more often, but it surely is no lack of desire on my part. As we grow older, it seems to be more of an effort, particularly in cold weather. If you decide to come down to our campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time you go, sit with you, and introduce you to all the other folks. Remember, this is a friendly community!”

Chalk that up as a danger of being too proper!

What is it?

This has been a long time coming… but it isn't quite here yet. What is it?

Twenty asisaid points are waiting for those who guess correctly.

Update (2006.10.01): I've fixed a problem that kept my mystery image from showing up in some scenarios.

Serial devices...

…are so much more trouble than USB devices.

License to (Not) Call

About eight weeks ago, I ordered some new license plates. Specifically Missouri Conservation plates — they have a nice picture of the state bird on them and the money goes to support Missouri's wonderful system of parks operated by the Conservation Department.

To get the plates, you must fill out a form, send it to the right people in Jeff City, wait, receive a form back, and then send that form back to Jeff City (this time to the Department of Revenue). This was much more of a project than I originally anticipated — I doubt I would have even bothered had know precisely how long it would all take to get organized.

At any rate, I sent the second batch of stuff in about eight weeks ago. The idea is that you hear from your local licenses bureau when the plates come in. So I waited. I figured it might take a couple of weeks. Or maybe a month. Or maybe six weeks. Finally, at the eight week point, I decided to call. I get ahold of a the bureau and the staffer goes and looks in the plates that they've received. Sure enough, the plate was there. It seems they forgot to tell me the plate came in. Just a minor detail, eh?

Tomorrow, I shall get my plates.

TQ: Relaxing

Below is this week's Thursday Question from Mark.

1.After a rough day at the office what is the first thing you do to help unwind?
I'm not consistent, but often times, I'll sit down and check my e-mail. That's a nice break before I start on whatever I need to accomplish at home.

2.If your day has been particularly rough, do you change something about your normal schedule to help ease the stress?
Maybe I will do less when I get home.

3.Do you find that working out helps you to deal with stress better?
No, not really.

4. What do you consider a nice stress free thing to do? Like on a day off or maybe right before going to bed.
Reading a good book. As time permits, I always have some book I'm in the middle of to read before bed (usually fairly fluffy fiction). For a break during the day (or on a “stress free” kind of day), I'll have something else I'd like to read, but requires me to be sharper than something I'd read before bed, that I'll read. The latter may be fiction or non-fiction — I switch back and forth.

Photography is another stress free kind of activity on a day off.

Note: The questions on this page written by Mark are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.5 license. I believe my responses are allowed under fair use and therefore are not licensed under the Creative Commons license (I don't want people messing with adapting my personal opinions, thank you very much).