brainstorms

Monday July 25, 2005

recent good quotes

mom's sleeping away while bats flutter by! -- eren yigit

entropy grinds down the unweary. -- david brin [kiln people]

if it's broken, adding crypto just makes it broken and hidden. -- marcus j ranum

Real time programming is kind of like being a batter where the pitcher throws the balls continuously. And instead of a catcher behind the home plate you have a sleeping troll who will eat you if a ball gets through and hits him. -- james gosling

the past has a vote, but not a veto. -- mordecai m. kaplan [as quoted by matt young]

when opportunity knocks, the entrepreneur is always home. -- francis wheen

the only difference between kitsch and beautiful is time. -- catherine willows [CSI]

i have learned that arguments, no matter how watertight, often fall on deaf ears. -- daniel dennett [darwin's dangerous idea]

the scepticism i advocate amounts to this: (1) that when the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain; (2) that when they are not agreed, no opinion can be regarded as certain... and (3) that when they all hold that no sufficient grounds for a positive opinion exist, the ordinary man would do well to suspend his judgement. -- bertrand russell [on the value of scepticism]

naps are completely underestimated and are an essential part of the creative process. -- laura zeck [quoted in 401 design meditations]

[image on the right dedicated to christopher alexander, in appreciation of his nature of order, an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe, vol. 1]

Tuesday July 12, 2005

more notes from a beach far, far away...

scuba: very pleased with the diversdelight group. the instructors and dive leaders are excellent, equipment reasonably good. my buddy was iffet hotel's owner, a seasoned rescue diver and now a friend i look forward to seeing again.

total bottom time for all the dives: around 6 hours, including a six-person, 30min/15m night dive.

very disappointing to see all the well known dive spots devoid of lifeforms for which some are named; the octopus bay near turunc may have been once an octopus haven; there is now hardly any to be seen. my buddy and i were the only ones to locate one. [it was a beautiful, large specimen, well hidden behind its shards of pottery and rocks. i hope it survives] basically, diving around turunc/marmaris area is a deeply saddening experience. greedy and stupid fishermen seemed to have trolled most of the underwater life forms out of existence for a quick buck; some of them now sell fake sunglasses and watches while others run shuttle services and sit around in the town cafes. [there must be a lesson in there somewhere for some canadian natives and fishermen...]

wrote quite a bit of haiku. [i was surrounded by miniature events that needed to be captured. a neighbour's rooster was a constant source of noise and humor, and often deserved a well-aimed boot]

summer noon -
a rooster's call
suddenly stops.

read some more of brin's excellent kiln people. he mentions the inverse relation between fanaticism and competence; i made a note of it for a future blog entry.

Saturday July 09, 2005

notes from a beach far, far away...

four boat dives with the diversdelight group. deepest so far is around 70ft. i am using up too much air; poor fins requiring more effort, more oxygen use. rest of the gear ok.

summer morning -
under the waves
sound of my breathing

finished daniel silva's the english assassin and enjoyed it very much. [first book from silva; i will have to pick up his other books] i now have to find and listen to guiseppe tartini's the devil's trill. [already know the brahms sonata for violin and piano in D minor, and paganini's caprice]

amongst the tourist-stocked (robert harris, ken follett, iain m banks, patricia cornwell, etc) books of the hotel library, two volumes by ayn rand: romantic manifesto and the virtue of selfishness. second one is a collection of essays, all hilariously nasty and twisted concoctions of pseudo-philosophical rhetoric. altogether too nutty, especially for the summer, but i leaf through it with wonder and amusement.

brin's kiln people is an exciting, valuable read. i should have read it a year ago, but i was too busy with other books. [i always have too much to read, so some very good books get left behind... sigh]

Monday July 04, 2005

haikus from a beach far, far away...

july noon -
red hen pecks,
pecks and runs.

summer heat -
rooster on a tin roof
calls and calls.

hot summer morning -
a cricket
comes to shade.

summer nightfall -
endless murmur
of the beach.

[turunc/2005]