brainstorms

Thursday August 03, 2006

plimpplamppletteren [last entry]

alas, this is it.

there is so much to say, so many people to thank, and now so little time.

started with dean kemp [thanks dean] and his opcom organization. i was privileged to work with a very sharp bunch of people like marc staveley, george nikodym, gil hauer, richard marejka, chris phillips, brian down, lou ferrante, and later david haynes, frank weil, dan davies brackett, just to name a few.

it was such a pleasure. and such a pain at times.

my good friend david tilbrook has a motto: never let your job get in the way of your work. the work is sun, and it is hard: innovative, smart, effective computing. architecting and engineering things others can only mumble about [like dtrace and zfs]. seeing and making things better. making a difference, not a duplicate.

i hope you do the work.

august dawn -
skipping stones
waiting for sunlight.

musical selection: donald byrd, a new perspective, blue note rvg edition.

[my york u page. i can be reached as o zed swirl silentrunning stop ca. new blog undetermined.]

Wednesday August 02, 2006

rootless

a rootless tree,
yellow leaves scattering
beyond the blue -
cloudless, stainless.

-- sozan-kyonin

[from the penguin book of zen poetry, edited and translated by lucien stryk and takashi ikemoto]

Tuesday August 01, 2006

google map of personal history

a pleasant surprise: google maps now have detailed aerial photographs of istanbul that include a part of my family history. the 11-storey building at the center of this image, named after my grandfather, is the third structure occupying that spot starting with my grandparents' family home. [where there are buildings now, there used to be pine trees, a windmill, and enough green space for sheep to graze in...]

the space of these structures aside, only two things have survived: a grape wine my grandfather had planted now covers a little gazebo [cannot be seen at this angle] next to the parking area at the back. the fig tree he planted in front somehow re-grew after it was chopped down during the last construction.

secondary addiction parts II and III

james downard's thorough dissection [actually more like shredding] of recent antievolutionist blather continues: secondary addiction part II and secondary addiction part III.

fascinating reading.