Monthly Archives: November 2008

10K Hours

I’m not usually a great fan of Gladwell’s books, but tonight I happened upon this excerpt from his latest book, which asks the question of whether there is any such thing as a genius.  It’s a fascinating read, and dovetails with a number of other conversations and philosophical ideas I’ve been preoccupied with lately.  One [...]
Posted in CDOT, Idea Factory, Seneca | Comments closed

Doesn’t everyone do it like this?

I’ve been fixing bugs all week as I gear-up for a new round of marking on the students’ 0.2 releases.  It’s been a welcome change hacking my email application (Thunderbird) instead of spending all day replying to mail inside it. Whenever I can I try to practice what I preach, and since I preach “open source [...]
Posted in CDOT, Seneca | Comments closed

Fire Tweet

Here’s a thought: why don’t the buildbots report to Twitter?  If the mars lander can twitter, why can’t the Mozilla tree?  It would be cool to have it report with some wit: “Um, John Smith, you totally broke the tree! [links]” Why not?
Posted in CDOT, Mozilla, Seneca | Comments closed

Sayings

I collect sayings.  Not physically, but in my head.  I’ve done so all my life, and it’s something I enjoy no end.  In the past two days I’ve stumbled on two great ones, and I offer them here as a way to enjoy them more fully as I take the time to type them out: “We [...]
Posted in Digital Swag | Comments closed

Make it go zOOom

As Fardad gears up to start teaching OpenOffice.org development in the winter, he’s doing a bunch of work on the code right now.  What he’s finding is that OOo builds are slOOow, like 8 hours slow for a clobber build.  Yesterday, as I walked past all our quad-core machines in CDOT, it occured to me: [...]
Posted in CDOT, Seneca | Comments closed

I Remember – Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of disappointed shells [...]
Posted in Idea Factory | Comments closed

Return of the White Whale

Last night at dinner my girls got us talking about octopai, which led to cuttlefish, which led to squid and giant squid.  Well, it wasn’t long until we were talking about Sperm Whales, at which point it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that I’d be reading Moby Dick after I got them to bed. I [...]
Posted in Idea Factory, family | Comments closed

Context and Correction

While I wait for a build to finish, I have time to share a story about something I learned yesterday.  First, I have to gloat: our girls are reading!  It’s been incredible to watch them suddenly get it, and become ravenous readers (“Dad, what does it say on the bottom of your socks?  I thought [...]
Posted in family | Comments closed

Change might need to change

Like most people I know, I’m thrilled that Change has come to the US.  I’ve been somewhat obsessed with US politics of late, following it on-line via blogs, twitter, youtube, and such.  I think one of the most emotional moments for me was watching a video of Obama vote with his family.  I have two [...]
Posted in Come on!, Seneca | Comments closed

“Canada’s open source school”

Yesterday Shaver and I were interviewed about the work we’ve done together at Seneca, and the article was published in Computer World Canada.  It was written on the occasion of Mozilla winning a Seneca Partnership Award for its incredible work with us to transform education and get students deeply involved in open source.  I’ve written [...]
Posted in CDOT, Mozilla, Seneca | Comments closed