It is funny- often times I make design decisions based on some parameters to have them challenged later (a week, a month, several years) -- the problem is by this time I've forgotten the reasons why I made the calls and am apt to agree with someone proposing a reason to change them. "Why do we have X threads for Y and not Z" or something.

Many times I've ended up changing something when prompted, and even though I felt uncomfortable about making the change, I couldn't verbalize why.. couldn't think of any reason why they could be wrong. Later it blows up, and I remember why, and it usually painfully obvious why I made the original call :) I think it is more compact for my brain to store something like "doing X is bad" rather than the actual reason why. Maybe it's a binary datatype in a brain-hash table :)

It is an annoying cognitive bug, but I suspect that carrying around reasons for doing everything will slow me down. Maybe not? I suppose that is one of the issues facing large companies in which everything has to be justified -- the more checks you have, the more reasons you have to remember to defend yourself, and the slower you move.

Hmm!

Hmm, this humidifier looks familiar...


...


SGI O2

I am living in Philadelphia now.

avant

et après

..still much to do.. look at the terrible wire mess

Justin Hall has recorded his thesis defense: Passively Multiplayer Online Games, which applies concepts from MMORPGS to reality, or at least to your computer-aided reality. For instance, he mentions a project where you install a sort of friendly spyware on your machine which tracks how often you interrupt your work to check email and when you do, it tattles on you. You lose points for doing things like that.

Video is here.

This is a pretty awesome looking protocol-- sort of like a TCP/UDP frankenstein with what they call "mult-homing" and "multi-streaming" and a couple of other goodies.

Mult-homing is the ability to split SCTP connections across networks, so like you could aggregate a bunch of networks together even if they had different IPs.

Multi-streaming is multiple streams within an association, or connection.

There are places where overhead is much higher than TCP, but also places where it's much lower. It's also included in Linux 2.6. Check out the article here: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-sctp/

There's a great recording of the D.C. Belle and Sebastian show from last week on NPR. Good quality.

http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/asc/live/20060306_asc_bellesebastian.mp3

I spent a fun afternoon in NYC yesterday checking out the Fashion of Architecture exhibit at Center for Architecture with Tiana and Sheila.


This is a tent that you wear. To the right, a wearable boat-suit.

( more from the exhibit )

Founders and leaders are a little overrated. I think I've always had the impression that they must somehow be better or more valuable than the rest of their team or company. After all, if their company has a clue, and they are in charge, they must be good!

Through the past years I've acted in both capacities, and I've found that a leader doesn't need to be really good, at least at anything technical. They have two chief functions.

• Decision Arbitration
  
  • Pick a solution from a list of proposals, or say they all suck and exactly why.
  
  
• Representation
  
  • Represent the team, the project, the company, be a figurehead and a lightening rod. Keep your minions happy by representing them adequately.
  
  

I've found ideation and generating proposals to be much harder than picking a solution from a list, especially when I have an excellent team[1]. Consider consumerism as a metaphor. In general, how much easier it to buy a solution for your dirty carpet than build one?[2] That said, you do need to have good taste.

"Ultimately it comes down to taste. It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then try to bring those things in to what you're doing. I mean Picasso had a saying he said good artists copy great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas ehm and I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."

--Steve Jobs in Triumph of the Nerds

This quote is about taste, but consider also how it represents Apple. Steve Jobs had the "best computer scientists in the world" ! Whether or not this is the case, this statement emphasizes why he is a good leader. He loves to talk about why Apple is the dog's bollocks.

Representation in business is often called marketing, but it's the same idea for free software.

"...The Project Leader represents the Debian Project to others. This involves giving talks and presentations about Debian and attending trade shows, as well as building good relationships with other organizations and companies."

--DPL info page

It's a bit harder to be a lightening rod, but after a few weeks on certain FLOSS mailing lists, you will be pretty hardened to that :)

I think if more technical people knew these things about leaders, there would be a lot less people wanting to be one. There is a social/ego boost associated with being a leader, but I don't think that the work is nearly as fun. I'd rather be a sandbox-coder who can write toys and make people go "wow!" [3] or "interesting!" than be a leader. Founders get a little bit more respect. They must have had at least one good idea :)

I'm definitely not saying it's easy to be a leader. It's a bottomless pit of hard tedious work. These people are just generally overrated. The whole of the team's ideation makes the project possible, and the leader is just another piece of this machine.

[1] This explains why it seems to be so very important to have the right people. See How to Start a Startup

[2] Consumerism creates good leaders? Nah. Consider the things people buy. :)

[3] When I was 6, I wanted to be a magician. :)

Tiana found neat jewelry made from electronics.

Resistor Neclace:


Transistor Earrings:


Diode Choker:


It's cute that they ship some of these things in anti-static bags. Zelle Catalog