no, really

I’m not entirely sure how long it has been, but apparently one of the interfaces on the machine I’ve got kicked it.   Unfortunately, that’s where I set the dns for my blog .  I switched ips, and things seem back the way they should be.

I’ve got a bit of work to do all at once, including getting Rails to run on this box.  There are some fun toys I’ve been building that I’d like to get served out of here.  If anyone can recommend good references on how to run Apache/lighttpd/rails/et al in tandem, I’d appreciate it!

Plus a new venture / direction for me.  More on that later!

I’ve been fortunate enough lately to have no shortage of work to do. Actually, some would describe it as an overabundance, but I say no such thing! But it’s true, when it rains, it pours.

In addition to all the usual brain-scratching fun I’ve been having at MetaFoundry (where hopefully we’ll have the new site up soon), I took on a mini project so I could learn RubyonRails. It’s going really well! I’m now a fanboy. Go ahead, mock me. With the exception of the still painful server setup/config, it only took a number of days to get a catalog up and running. Big change from the old days, I’ll tell ya that much. The dark ages!

Next, I started working on a yet-to-be-announced project with some smart people looking to revive the profile of Silicon Alley. I’ll tell you more when we finally get it to where we can release it. Yesterday proved to be a very New York day in the alley. I met the ringleader of the project at a design firm on Broadway and Houston. As it turns out, they do MusicNation, which is Neil’s gig. So I drop Neil an email while I’m sitting there. He replies that he loves them and to say hi, so I do. It’s nice to make fun connections like that. Plus, it was a really great meeting. Then, we head back to the office to take care of the tweaks and changes, and witness a drug deal in the stairwell. Then we find out a laptop and router were stolen – likely by Verizon. Then I go to get lunch, and see a 6′7″ tall German man walking down the street having a philosophical conversation with three black little people. Seriously, I’m not making this up. Only in this town.

Another big dealy that I’ve been working on (which is keeping me up till all hours doing work) is with Mahdad Taheri over at TVI / Noo. He’s got a new idea of how to expand Noo to beyond just New Years, and he desperately needed tech help. I gotta say… I talked to him, reviewed the business plan he’d been working on, and it all looks good! Plus, I know how Mahdad is. He decides to do something, and he does it. No half-assed waiting for funding working 2 hours a week. It’s serious. So, I’ve joined him in this venture as CTO, which means I get to fill in all the tech bits of the business plan, set up a plan for development, find a developer, and get crackin! We want to launch it this summer so it’s ready and tested for gift season. I’ll fill in more details as we get close. Anybody know any developers??

There’s so much good music out there. This one touched me again tonight. I need to learn it well and sing it somewhere with a decent jazz accompanist .

Its not the pale moon that excites me
That thrills and delights me,
Oh no
Its just the nearness of you

It isnt your sweet conversation
That brings this sensation,
Oh no
Its just the nearness of you

When youre in my arms
And I feel you so close to me
All my wildest dreams
Came true

I need no soft lights to enchant me
If youll only grant me
The right
To hold you ever so tight
And to feel in the night
The nearness of you.

I know that this post will probably hurt a person or two, and maybe it’ll make some people happy, but if there weren’t controversy, would it be worth writing? So, I apologize in advance for any hurt feelings this may cause. If you need it, I’ll give you a hug upon request the next time I see you.

I’m sitting in the JetBlue terminal at Fort Lauderdale with tears in my eyes, fighting the uncontrollable urge to just break down right here. But these aren’t tears of sadness or pain or disappointment – I’ve had enough of those in recent months to know the difference.

These are tears of absolute joy. This past week has been the best week of my life, thus far.

For the past several years I’ve been growing as a person. I’ve learned so much, loved so much, and came to discover myself in so many ways. All of this while being safely wrapped in the safe and warm cucoon of my former relationship.

After a very difficult, painful and necessary breakup, I started to heal, a little at a time. I made some new friends, had some new fun, and started to feel like myself again. I was happy and comfortable and felt like I could face the world.

(okay, now I’m tearing like a baby)

I had planned a vacation for me and my ex to Florida for a week, but seeing as we were no longer together, I thought it best to go by myself. I figured it would be an excellent opportunity to be away by myself and unwind and get quiet and solitude to ponder my loss and my development. Boy was I wrong.

The trip was perfect. From the second my car arrived to take me to the airport, to arriving at the airport to go home, EVERYTHING has happened exactly as it should, and always in unexpected ways.

In Key West, I made friends, and met the most amazing man, who may very well be the love of my life – time will tell. It all played out like a movie, and I felt things I have never felt before. Wonderful things. I learned that I can feel again, as intensely and as uncontrollably as I had before – and more. Unfortunately, because of the way the universe works, we can’t be together – at least not now. Not because of circumstance or feeling, but because of location. There is a distinct possibility that will change in the near future, but again – time – I need to live my life and if it’s meant to be, we’ll be together again.

Now I stand at the precipice, faced with the rest of my life and all the options that lay ahead. I’m exstatic. I have the strength and the energy it takes to make the changes I need in my life right now. I’m not far off the path, but I need to get going so life doesn’t pass me by.

I can’t thank everyone enough in my life, but I will try. I owe so much to all of my amazing friends. The patience they have shown me in my times of need, and the joy they’ve shared with me in these amazing times will never be forgotten.

The first stop on the way to the rest of my life: the little boys’ room.

A lot happened in the past few months.  Some of you know all the stories, some of you know most of the stories, and the rest of you have no clue!  Sooner or later, I’ll talk about all of it, but for now you’ll have to settle with an apology for my silence, and assurance that I’m okay.

I’m going to be making some more personal commentary on here as is appropriate.  When possible, names will be changed to protect the… well… people.

If feeling things good and bad means I’m alive, then I’m more alive than I’ve been in a long time.

It occurred to me the other day, there *is* a way to deal with stupid ringing cell phones in public places. We just need to get manufacturers in on it.

You know Bluetooth, right? Most cell phones have it now. More will as time goes on. Bluetooth has these feature/profile things where different phones can do different things like “send file” or “send my number” or “stereo audio” or just “headset”. They need to make a new one “silent trigger.”

Here’s how it works. Your phone has bluetooth. You go to the library. When you walk through the door, there’s a very small, subtle device that sits in the entrance, and as you pass by, it pokes the bluetooth on your phone and goes “hey, quiet place, go silent!” The profile on your phone detects the signal, and goes “okay, silent mode!”

Turning the ringer back on is your own responsibility, but in the meantime, all those annoying forgetful people who are inconsiderate and have their phones on loud ringer in church or the movies or concerts… they’d be silenced without any hassle!

Isn’t it brill?!

Maybe it’s patented… gotta look it up.

Update: looked it up, it’s not very popular or anything, but Bluelinx makes something like this.

I’ve had this discussion recently with someone, I can’t remember whom, about what services are appropriate as Social (government backed) and Private (hands off).  When it comes right down to it, I think there are two basic classifications for things that I feel are suitable for government support, whether it be financial or legislative:  public necessities (water, electricity, transportation, etc), and betterment of humanity (NASA, DHS, etc).  Bear with me, this is just a sketch of an opinion.

Now wikipedia is something that’s kind of controversial because of its very public and democratic nature.  Read that again… blah blah blah CONTROVERSIAL blah blah DEMOCRATIC.  This is a repository for information that uses the public for submission of information, and is continuously being checked by editors and experts for things like accuracy, balance and relevance.  It only accepts donation money, because many still feel that advertising would make it non-objective and commercial, which is not appropriate for a mass-encyclopedia.

Wikipedia also suffers from a very high barrier to entry.  In order to participate, you have to be able to speak the wiki language, which is not very easy.  It favors programmers in that way, so it is likely to have information highly skewed to the interests of those people.   In order to remove this barrier, it is believed that 30-50 full-time developers could comb through submissions and enter the information themselves.  This is unaffordable because of the lack of sufficient funding.

It just struck me that this could be a valuable public service, for the betterment of humanity.  And who better to help collect the 21st century’s information, as provided by the residents therein, then the Library of Congress?  It’s quite possible that funding, protection and staff from the LOC could give wikipedia what it needs to maintain its objectivity, to continue to foster democratic croudsourcing of information, and make it a reliable source of information for school children.

Besides, the $2M+ / yr that it would take to keep it up and running is a drop in the bucket compared to, say… how much it costs per year to clean the Capitol Building’s drapes.  And how often do you use those?

but someone heard my cry for a beta phone.  I can’t share any details (of course), but I guess I can share that it’s Windows Mobile based (which still sucks), and it’s got a very new “feature” that I haven’t been able to test yet.  I’m looking forward to seeing what it can do.  The device itself is pretty nifty, though – it feels right, and it’s a candybar – light and rugged.

Between being forced to use my old Nokia while in Indiana, and starting with this once I got back, I find that I’m kind of missing my Samsung.  It’s sitting here in pieces looking like it needs some triage.  Sigh.  Maybe I’ll learn to like the new beta device in time…

Finally Google has gotten around to pushing the Gmail Fetch tool! So far I’m quite pleased. But take my advice – if you set up your gmail to forward messages to your phone via sms (which I love), remember to turn that off before you set up the Fetch. Otherwise, you’ll get 300+ txts to your phone, which gets tired after a while. Glad I don’t pay for incoming txts. Other than that it checks for mail frequently enough for me, and I can read and reply to messages from the gmail app on my phone. How exciting!

to see some snow:

Main St. Brookville, IN