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If a woman over the age of 18 runs away from home, we have institutions to support her - they're called "shelters." That's supposed to be a good thing and good people are supposed to donate money and goods to shelters. If a person of either sex under the age of 18 runs away from home, someone who offers them a place to stay is "harbouring." Harbouring is illegal in Manitoba and they're trying to get it added to the Federal criminal code. What the fuck, people?
(21 November 2009)Lulu, the self-publishing platform through which I'm distributing some of my work, recently announced that now they're doing "eBooks." Interesting piece of "news," since they've offered electronic distribution right from the start of their operation, and I've been using it myself for years already. What's new? It turns out the actually new part is that instead of just allowing people to buy and sell downloadable PDFs, now they're going further to support commercial "eBook" devices... and they're claiming an additional $1.49 out of every download sold on top of their previous claim of 20% of the retail price (it's going to be interesting if they try to take $1.49 out of my Japanese syllabary flash cards, which are currently priced at $1.00)... and (for another $0.99) they'll let you apply DRM to your "eBook."
I'm inclined to think that at the very least, I shouldn't publish with Lulu again; and, probably, I should also withdraw my existing publications from their system and find some other print-on-demand outfit. Is that an overreaction?
ETA: They've posted a response, see below.
(17 November 2009)Because of Lulu's introduction of DRM, I'm looking around for viable alternatives. Amazon's "CreateSpace" seems to be worth consideration. It can't replace everything Lulu did. Here's a quick comparison of their advertised features. I haven't worked with CreateSpace myself and so can't describe personal experience on how well it really lives up to its stated way of doing things; if I do use it in the future I'll update this page with my experiences.
(12 November 2009)Aluminum oxide in its alpha crystal form is a mineral called corundum. Pure corundum crystals are naturally colourless, but they usually contain impurities that give them colour, and they can be almost any colour. If they're red, these crystals are called rubies; if orange-pink, they're called padparadschas; and in any other case they're called sapphires. Blue sapphires are one notable variety.
(27 October 2009)I've not had much enthusiasm for the copyright wars in the last few years, and I've mostly stayed on the sidelines in the current consultation. It's important stuff, though, and there are only a few days left to make submissions, so this morning I took some time out to prepare the following. You should take a look at the Speak Out On Copyright site and put in your comments, too.
(9 September 2009)Roger Ebert wrote an excellent piece about the current US healthcare nonsense. I don't have a lot to say on that particular topic; I'm not sure how much interest it has for my readers, and he's much better positioned to talk about it and be listened to than I am. One thing I'd like to say, though, is that it reminds me how glad I am I'm living in Canada. Another thing is that, okay, Ebert talks about how "socialism" is a dirty word and used as an excuse for turning off one's brain. Any rational argument on US healthcare can be trumped by calling the other party "socialist." Well, in Canada's own health care debates, which are going on right now though on a much smaller scale than the ones in the States, we have a dirty word like that too. It's used as an excuse for abandoning rational thought. If you propose a plan and I disagree with it, all I have to do is accuse you of proposing a (this dirty word) plan, and that's it, I win, no more debate allowed. Just like calling someone "socialist" in the USA; but the dirty word in Canadian health care debates isn't "socialist."
(24 August 2009)It is my plan to work full-time in the calendar months September to December 2009 writing a book. This page tracks my progress, both for the interest of Web site visitors and because having a public visible progress indicator will help me stay motivated. If you want even closer to real-time reports on my status, you should follow my twitter updates.
(13 August 2009)People who care about such things are talking about an article by Tom DeMarco in IEEE Software entitled Software Engineering: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone? (PDF file). Well, that's what I said 13 years ago. At the time I was taking, and hating, a second-year university software engineering course; I'd just come off a co-op term working in the real world making actual software people would use, and I wasn't too thrilled to be told a pack of lies about how the ricidulous "methodologies" of software engineering were not only helpful, but absolutely necessary, when I'd just seen validation of my long experience as an amateur, writing software and learning what actually worked. I wrote the article below, and it stayed on my Web site for a long time, and then I eventually took it down because I was remodelling, it had never attracted the attention I'd hoped for, and I didn't want to continue maintaining it and a bunch of other old material. This January (2009) one of my friends who actually works in the industry - I did a few more co-op terms and then headed for the academic path instead - was telling me how he thought I should put the "bromides" article back up. He said other people were catching on to similar ideas, he'd even discussed it with some famous software engineering writer whose name I don't remember (could even have been Tom DeMarco, could have been anyone) who had agreed substantially with my friend's description of my ideas, and the only problem was I'd been ahead of the curve writing about it in 1996. So, maybe the time for this article has finally come.
(27 July 2009)