John Dvorak: Hate and Discontent in Des Moines
John Dvorak of PC Magazine fame spoke after Tim O'Reilly at Gnomedex today. He trashed Mac users, he trashed bloggers, he demonstrated how to steal a Powerpoint presentation, and unlike a lot of other Gnomedexers, I thought he was funny and reasonably relevant; my vote is bring him back, Chris. [Full disclosure: yes, he's one of the only people on earth to ever read my blog--he may have trashed bloggers today but he's read mine!] He started with a set of remarkably non-prescient quotes about computers and technology--which is pretty much the same set I use in MY presentation on emerging technologies (which BTW is far more complete than John's...). If you want to see all the quotes, just go to 'Famous Last Words' on one of my sites, PondScumAndLawyers.com. I've pretty much got them all (and they've been there a while, too). John did cause a lot of hate and discontent, and others only want to see him again if he's "going to be serious". I just want John to be John. I like him in print and I like him in person--now I'll be a considered a Philistine among some Gnomies, but hey, can't we all just get along?

Tim O'Reilly's Powerpoint from Gnomedex
Well, I got Tim's permission to link in the Powerpoint presentation from his talk today, so here it is: Tim O'Reilly's Gnomedex Powerpoint.

Tim O'Reilly at Gnomedex
Tim O'Reilly started speaking at Gnomedex and I started taking notes. He flashed up a quote and I decided "I think I'll search for that quote"; when I did, I found his Powerpoint slides...or at least close enough. I pulled together pieces and updated pages and I think I have complete simulacrum of his presentation which I will ask him permission to post this afternoon; so look for it here later...and if you can't wait, read Andy Ruff's great notes at RunOn.

Surfing at Gnomedex
No, not surfing the net--surfing on water,with boards and wetsuits and stuff. To demonstrate their new high resolution video technology, Microsoft held a screening of an as-yet-unreleased movie: Step into Liquid,a new surfing movie from the makers of Endless Summer. Now I am not a surfer (nor do I play one on television) but I think I have the creds to be a good judge of surfing movies--I grew up in Hawaii and Southern California; I have a brother and two brother-in-laws who are surfers; and I spent entire summers of my youth hanginging out and body surfing at some of the great surfing beaches in SoCal: Oceanside, Harbor, Carlsbad, Encinitas, San Onofre. Heck, I've even preached a sermon partially based on Endless Summer! So here's my verdict: this movie is awesome. It covers the world of surfing: supertanker wake surfing off Galveston; surfing Lake Michigan in Sheyboygan, Wisconsin; and even surfing in Ireland. Oh yeah, they do go to the "usual" spots, too: Malibu, North Shore, Pipeline, Maui, San Onofre, Encinitas (my mom's from there), Tahiti, Western Australia, Tahiti, Rapa Nui. James Roberts commented to me that in the first five minutes of the movie he saw something in common between the surfers in the flick and our room full of geeks: a real intensity and passion for what they love. Still, it was pretty surreal to be in a room full of computer geeks watching a movie about surfing! The point of the movie was, of course, to show off new digital video technology, and I have to admit that it was pretty amazing to think that this movie was being shown from a PC.

Rob Malda Rambles at Gnomedex...
Rob Malda (Cdr Taco) of Slashdot fame is speaking right now--he really rambles since he came to speak with "no prepared text". Just as brash in person as he is online. Another morning speaker, quite interesting: "not a legend.com".

Update from Gnomedex in Des Moines, Iowa
Hey, my M and 1 keys are working now, but my battery is at 28% so I'll find a plug later...

Live from Des Moines, Iowa
Well, I gave my final exam to my information security class last night, hopped in my new Chevy Astro, and headed off to Des Moines, Iowa to Gnomedex. It only took me 4.5 hours to get there (Mapquest said five) and check-in to my hotel went smooth as silk. It turned out that my hotel has a free buffet breakfast [nice]. Walked to the Convention Center and checked in - typical set up: on line for A-L, another for M-Z, and there was along line for M-Z and no one in the A-L line. Do geeks tend to fall at the end of the alphabet? Anyway, I'm at the first session now and my m and 1 keys won't work on my laptop (sigh). Maybe if I reboot... Anyway, no deep thoughts yet but we'll see.

I did spend a lot of time listening to AM radio last night and realized that blogs are the talk radio of the Internet (although I'm absolutely certain I'm not the first to make that observation). I also have not listened to talk radio in a while. Interesting for a short time but I do realize why I don't listen to talk radio. I did hear about an interesting new book about ventriloquists and another book discussing the fact that Hollywood is so liberal that you have to be a "closet conservative" if you are of that persuasion and want to work there (big surprise there, huh?). I'll stick with blogs, thank you.

If I can find a plug when my battery dies I'll bring more "Live Gnomedex news" as the day goes on...

Yahoo Buys Owner of AltaVista and AllTheWeb
It seems that Yahoo is purchasing Overture, the owner of search engines AltaVista and AllTheWeb. They already owned Inktomi, so this puts a major, major share of Web search engines in one pot. I know, it happened last week. So I'm a little behind, but it's still worthy of mention.
Yahoo Press Release: http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/pr/release1102.html
Yahoo News: http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?&in=Tech&cat=Internet_Portals_and_Search_Engines
Yahoo! to Buy Overture for $1.6 Billion - Information Today

More Web Weirdness
(Stay with me here; ya' just gotta keep up with this stuff, ok?)
Poke the Penguin / Bunny / Doughboy / Evil Nun / Pig / Professor: There's a whole lot of stuff to poke on the Web...
Mirror Sytes: This displays your web site in a mirror image of itself...in the same spirit as the Eater of Meaning. Here's my blog backwards: thgiL fo syaR. I like the address mechanism for this one: it prepends your site address onto the action address. And it even swaps the scroll bar to the left side of the page...
elgooG: Speaking of backwards sites, how about a true "mirror site" of Google: elgooG.
Homestar Runner: Creative and funny flash cartoons.

Calling Cards
In the days before calling cards meant minutes on the phone, a part of life for the middle- and upper-classes (and would be upper-class) in Western society was the formal “paying of calls” and leaving a calling card. Over the years a fairly elaborate set of etiquette rules evolved around calls and calling cards, with different rules for ladies and for gentlemen. This custom became popular in Regency times and became firmly established in Victorian times, and anyone who considered themself to be a lady or gentleman, a member of “polite society”, would always have a few calling cards on their person. The tradition has died out today and most folks would not know a calling card if you slapped them in the face with one (hopefully without giving them a nasty paper cut). They would just think it was an odd-sized business card that was really short on information. The one place this tradition lingers in some senses, although it is dying there as well (just more slowly), is in the military. Calling cards (except ladies' and joint husband and wife cards) are smaller than business cards and contain far less information; traditionally, only a name and any titles that go with the name. The traditional man's calling card was white or cream pasteboard, unglazed, and bore only his name in engraved printing. The original size for gentlemen's cards was about 1.25 by 3 inches. My first calling cards were to accompany my high school graduation announcements and followed this format; they were white embossed pasteboard with Old English lettering (shown at left). In the late Victorian era it was not uncommon for calling cards to be somewhat larger and to include engraved monocrome graphics or even color lithography. Ladies calling cards (and the majority of formal calling was done by ladies calling on ladies) were always larger and eventually standardized somewhere around 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

Among military officers, the use of calling cards and the paying of social calls on superior officers is still customary; a good explanation of calls and the use of calling cards can be found in the Service Etiquette Student Handout (.rtf file) from the Basic Officer Course at the Marine Corps Basic School. The current military calling cards are 1.75 by 3.25 inches and are always plain white pasteboard. My current calling card (if I'd actually ever had any printed up) is shown at right. For company grade officers (Second Lieutenant through Captain) in the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, and for junior officers (Ensign, Lieutenant (Junior Grade), Lieutenant and Lieutenant Commander) in the Navy and Coast Guard, the rank is shown above the service title in the lower right corner. For Naval officers, the type style should be relatively plain as fancier typefaces are for use by senior officers. Some current examples of cards that can be ordered from the Marine Corps Association show Old English in use by even Lieutenants so maybe that's OK in the Corps.

Field Grade/Senior officers place their rank before their name as shown at left. They also can use more elaborate type styles than more junior officers. Combat arms officers in the Army and line officers in the Navy just list their rank and service, while staff corp/combat support/combat service support officers can (and should) list their corps or branch as well as their service. Married officers can also use a joint card with their spouse as shown to the right.

One of the great customs of making calls used to take place at the Basic Officer's Course of the Marine Corps Basic School, a course taken by every new Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. I am told by my Marine Corps buddies that prior to his death in 1971, General Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, the most highly decorated Marine officer in history, would accept calls every Sunday from the young Second Lieutenants attending the Basic School. They would call his wife, set up an appointment, and would start out early Sunday morning in a small group of three for four to pay their respects to him at his home in Saluda, Virginia. I haven't found any “paying a call on Chesty Puller” stories online so if you know any please write and let me know.

It's sometimes reassuring to know that some traditions considered to be a sign of civility can survive even into the Twenty-First century. The original “calling cards” are just one of those traditions.

Viral Meningitis
Well some little virus buggers decided to attack my eldest son's meninges. This results in a condition known as viral meningitis, which really means a viral infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis is a very scary word because people usually think of bacterial meningitis which has about a ten percent fatality rate, but the viral form is much less serious. According to the Center for Disease Control, "Viral (aseptic) meningitis is serious but rarely fatal in persons with normal immune systems. Usually, the symptoms last from 7 to 10 days and the person recovers completely. Bacterial meningitis, on the other hand, can be very serious and result in disability or death if not treated promptly. Often, the symptoms of viral meningitis and bacterial meningitis are the same. For this reason, if you think you or your child has meningitis, see your doctor as soon as possible." (BTW, that CDC Web site is great; clearly written, understandable by lay people and incredibly complete...). It seems that viral meningitis is on the rise amongst children, primarly in the summertime, which then results in a rise in hospitalizations. Typically when someone is diagnosed with meningitis, which is indicated by an elevated white blood cell count in the spinal column, the patient is hospitalized until the cultures come back negative for the bacterial form of the disease. They are treated with whopping big doses of antibiotics, because the key to beating bacterial menigitis is prompt treatment. So once my son was dignosed, they popped him in a hospital bed, started an IV of antibiotics, and kept him there until it was ruled to be viral. I spent a couple of nights at the hospital with him--he's as old as you can be and still be considered pediatric, but in the pediatric ward they at least had a chair that folded out into a bed for the benefit of parents. Edward Hospital, our local ER, is not without problems but they did alright by us on this one. (We'll also see how our medical non-insurance, TRICARE Standard, will work out and how much we will end up paying out-of-pocket). Anyway, he tried to go back to summer school after his four days in the hospital, but it was just too much. He'll be a while recovering. The other kids were sick too, probably the same exact virus, but for whatever reason it decided to just leave their meninges alone. It will, however, be a while before things get back to normal at our house. I just hope everything is relatively normal before I head off to Gnomedex on Thursday night...