Friday, January 31, 2003

"Fireworks crackle, the year ends" "Fireworks crackle, the year ends Spring wind wafts, and I downed cups of wine Early New Year morning, as sun shines bright Every household is busy replacing old with new "  Wang Anshi  (1021-1086) Happy Chinese New Year to you all... and century ! It's 4700 tomorrow. Year of the Goat... don't know what to make of that :-) 11:05:13 PM    comment []

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Quote of the Day Quote of the Day. "Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh." - George Bernard Shaw Link   Discuss [The .NET Guy] I went to a funeral last week. This quote is very relevant. 11:35:59 AM    comment []

Monday, December 02, 2002

Charles Dupuis, 84, Publisher Who Introduced the Smurfs, Dies Charles Dupuis, 84, Publisher Who Introduced the Smurfs, Dies. Charles Dupuis, a Belgian publisher of French-language comics, was best known in the U.S. for introducing the blue-hued, animated characters called Smurfs. By Eric P. Nash. [New York Times: Business] That's a significant loss: smurfs are great. 12:54:40 PM    comment []

Kids and their software developer parents You did good.. My five year old son walked up behind me today as I toiled away on sample code for the chapter that I am working on, he saw the JUnit green bar on the screen, and said "Dad, you did good." [Blogging Roller] I don't know if I envy him or not: I work from home since a few months and what I hear most often from my 4 years old daughter when she comes back from school in the evening is: "Papa, encore un p'tit mail et tu viens jouer avec moi" ("Dad, one more short mail and you come play with me !"). I guess it will soon be time to teach her logo :-)   12:27:29 PM    comment []

Wednesday, November 20, 2002

Solaris: A New Dawn for Sci-Fi?. Science-fiction buffs madly debate online the merits of Steven Soderbergh's upcoming remake of an obscure Russian film. Could the new Solaris, starring George Clooney, signal a revival of smart sci-fi? By Jason Silverman. [Wired News] No, that's not another Scott McNealy visionary talk, just a film. I have seen the version from Tarkovski but I didn't like it very much. I haven't read the book. 6:10:26 PM    comment []

Thursday, November 14, 2002

Neuros HD 20GB MP3 Digital Audio Computer Neuros HD 20GB MP3 Digital Audio Computer Cool ! 2:57:57 PM    comment []

Thursday, October 31, 2002

Halloween for geeks Happy Halloween. No Halloween here, but this cheered me up: :-D -Russ [Russell Beattie Notebook] No Halloween in France either, but Laura, our american Au Pair showed my daughter how to carve a pumpkin.   6:29:18 PM    comment []

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

A pearl of wisdom by Sam "gardener" Ruby Planting a seed. When I was in my twenties, I did not respect authority.  I colored outside the lines. When a teacher or a boss told me what they thought I should do, I asked "why?".  Most didn't like this much.  When I told others what to do, they didn't ask me why, nor did they particularly enjoy the experience.  I found the satisfaction of being able to tell them "I told you so" later to be quite hollow. When I was in my thirties, I did not respect authority.  Telling people what to do and asking "why" continued to yield similar results with people who "ranked" higher than me.  But I found that more and more people were coming to me and asking me for my opinion.  Some of them even asked why.  Those that did seemed to like the fact that I would try to answer the question.  Once, one of the people who had sought my opinion remarked about my tendency to color outside of the lines.  My response was instantaneous: "What lines?". Now, I am forty.  I still do not much respect authority.  I still occasionally ask why.  But mostly I plant seeds.  I do things that cause other people to ask why. Generally, the response is along the lines of "why not?".  When asked for clarifications, I rarely respond with generalities any more, I try to cite specifics. It doesn't always work right away, but I've learned to be patient.  Trying to rush things that can't be rushed doesn't work.   I rarely have the opportunity to tell people "I told you so" any more.  Instead, I now have people who come back to me and say, "it would have been more helpful had you been more direct in the first place".  To which, I smile, nod politely, and resume my planting of seeds. [Sam Ruby] A pearl of wisdom. I'm not 40 yet :-) 4:44:58 PM    comment []

A Joyce site Work in Progress, A Website Devoted to the Writings of James Joyce 2:46:13 PM    comment []

How local CNN really is All about TV. ... Right now, watching CNN-International doesn't do it. They have these weird foreign anchors... I used to live in Atlanta and had a friend who worked for CNNi. I got a tour of their studios, etc. It's all based out of Atlanta, why the HELL do they have heavily accented anchors when the main viewing audience is Americans??? All their news is 100% US-oriented, it's not like someone from here is going to watch and think "ooh boy, here's where I'm going to get my news." I have problems with CNN anyways. Live in Atlanta and you realize how local it really is. They'll have a spot on some international incident, then walk downstairs and interview some idiot on the street in Georgia about his feelings. Please. ... -Russ [Russell Beattie Notebook] I never liked CNN's pretense at being a global media altogether. When traveling abroad I prefer the BBC. Maybe this is just a European bias I have :-) Russel's point of view as an American who used to live in Atlanta just reinforces this opinion. 1:07:16 PM    comment []