there's another side my recent linux world walk about. firstly, one individual, a purported /.'er loudly bemoaned about how offended he is that the pony-tailed one wouldn't grant him a private interview, how he had xK readership and on and on and on. my take, the fifteen minutes of fame early "bloggers," and I generally categorize /. as such, is pretty much over. not quite gone but no longer "the word on the street" per se but just another checkout aisle gossip rag. as an idividual i am now empowered to subscribe to a wide array of direct channels of information. as an information consumer i don't want the "filter" and i very much expect information producers welcome this little opportunity to express a little thing we like to call "freedom of speech" as well. get over it already. you want to know what is on someone's mind ... subscribe.

it should be obvious, well, if you are viewing this from the source site that i have a warm place in my heart for green -on-black. i remember the day when someone, long ago, upon hearing me complain of sore and red eyes showed keyed me into considering tweaking my color schemes. not a big deal by today's standards but once going with green-on-black i was much more comfortable. anyways, one significantly bearded fellow with pulled down hat approached me and didn't really speak ... for quite a time. he didn't look significantly agitated but he also wasn't going away. not being one who is shy with words i initiated the conversation with "nice shirt" appreciating the classical green-on-black themed brethren. to cut to the chase, this individual hates pretty much everything i like and have working experience with. with awkward backing evidence like "used jdk 1.1.what-ever" and perl [shudder] does it all mumble/grumble" this discussion was just going nowhere. i doubt that even if we had beers in hand would we have somethng enjoyable to discuss. thankfully an individual broke the emo lock by inquiring about jxta ... imagine that. my take: why be so bitter? i mean really. give it a rest, try on new shirts once in awhile. it's all good.

having finally felt cleansed from the above episode an individual walked up and pronounced "sun doesn't get linux" to which i replied "you are kidding me, right? i mean, let's just take a look at the booths that are simply in line of site ..." afterwhich his single word reply was "oh" and then he ran away as if he was late to choir. odd. ok, move on. then, whe reading my favorite lug list i happened across a linux world blog entry. cool. i'm curious. so i dive in and find "...One of Sun's multiple selves was on the Expo floor. I guess the other components of the split-personality syndrome were complaining bitterly, but muffled by the treatment, and were threatening with a penguin-killing spree once Dr. Jekyll hands the reins over to Mr. Hyde. In any case, the Linux-loving self that participated to the Expo was big and loud, albeit kinda boring." hmmmmm, interesting. i can't believe people write this $hit. i can't believe people believe the drivel. i could've swore i was at the same conference. anyways, i check the pics and sure enough, there i am, i was there. and then there it was. the very same dude that provided me with the unique two-letter feedback oh. i responded, florin didn't but a dialog ensued. a healthy one at that short the originator of misinformation didn't participate. akkana chimed in with "...I made my annual circuit around some of the big booths, looking at who actually ran linux. Sun was by far the most Windows oriented: I only saw one linux machine in the part of the booth I sampled, and all the rest were running Windows. I was surprised, because in past years Sun had a lot more Solaris machines on display, even if they've never had a lot of linux machines in the booth..." amazing. i countered this one immediately with no reply from the original poster but again a healthy dialog ensued with other list members ... after all, the dialog is what it is all about. my man dan did an excellent write up on this one and while he is likely right i find it really hard to believe a netscape/mozilla developer at a linux world conference can't tell windows form java desktop, i mean *really*. while it appears akkana finally understood the mistake i wish she had participated openly on the list so that we can all, collectively, get a better understanding of the issues. i learned a ton in the dialog and i know others did as well based on both the public and private inquiries. we need to do more of this ... much more. and while some of my colleagues encouraged me to be "more polite" i suggested "it is time to stop being polite and start getting real" because when people can post pure b$ and the masses, to a degre, believe it, we have a significant signal impedance that needs to be addressed in the trenches every day in every way. take way: there are some strong perceptions and formulated opinions about sun that are, imnsho, largely incorrect and the fact we don't have a "face" on sun to engage in man-on-the-street dialogs to the degree we should and used to have is bothersome. i wish we would through up a referencable faq to blow through the fud as this level of confusion gets in the way of talking about systems, more correctly end-to-end networked systems, *the* network vision that is sun and drives projects like jxta. lastly, i invite folks to put down the koolaid, pick up a beer, stop banging the tired old drum, and engage in an open dialog with sun on any topic at any venue. we can learn alot from one another and there are a ton of eye opening solutions and vision being rolled out everyday via a number of coorporate and open channels. it's all good. really. come on now, don't be shy.

lastly, i very much believe that there is one company that is learning way more then the kid that should consider getting more sun and we should work to put the fud and noise behind us and build out a truly pervassive and end-to-end secure network. get connected already.

Java == platform independence
XML == application independence
JXTA == network independence

Secure End-to-End Computing

in my ears: RadioHead/Hail To The Theif/A Wolf At The Door

bzflag rocks! the rules couldn't be simplier ... point, shoot, kill. there a couple of game styles which are fun, like capture the flag. oh and the tanks can jump and power flags are available. the social aspects of this game rock, like most of it's kind i suspect. the releases are getting better and better with regards to keeping malcontents in line. for example, it is quite often you find team killers, or tk'ers. these are the anonymously brave types that strive to swim against the tide and kill thier own team members, lie when their caught, etc. pathetic. they are everywhere. the latest releases look to have not only polling features where these slugs can be voted out ... by their peers none the less but also an autoboot for those that tk a fixed number of times within a time period. inadvertent tk'ing can easily occur in a fast paced popular game but all in all the implementation looks to be nicely done. this features alone have brought the level of play completley back inline and more often then not i genuinely like the folks i team up with. good times.

this type of "social self-ruling" behaviours are just as appropriate and enabling for applications in general. it is really the only way to scale as deployment models go beyond what is manageable ... the old school way.

my son has been playing bzflag since he was 2 1/2. pretty amazing to see a little toddler all over my keyboard one finger on tab and the other driving the mouse wildly. they learn so fast. he's 4 now. i think i'll see about getting my mits on a cheap box and so that we can play against each other. he's also got a computer thomas the tank engine game that he very much enjoys as well ... least concerns of parental judgement linger.

bzflag supports a "solo" mode where one can play against a variable number of drones ... pretty smart drones. when letting trey out on the net to play against real folks ... truth be known he pretty much takes over my game from time to time ... he eventually pleads for help most often of which he's been booted for tk'ing. poor guy. poor me as my handle looks to be blocked from some games. he's just having fun but having societal rules enforced relatively consitently is good for all ... people and systems alike. again, it's the only way to scale, adapt, grow, learn, consume and contribute.

Java == platform independence
XML == application independence
JXTA == network independence

Secure End-to-End Computing

in my ears: RadioHead/Hail To The Theif/ScatterBrain