IBM, Canonical, Red Hat, and Novell announced earlier this week that they’re working together to provide a Microsoft-free computing solution to companies. I’m largely indifferent to Red Hat and Novell (sorry Fedora and SuSE fans), but I have to admit that I’m happy that IBM is working with Canonical. I turned my Thinkpad into a dual boot Ubuntu / Windows machine over a year ago, and these days I spend most of my time booted into Ubuntu.
It looks the concrete first step is to get Lotus Symphony 1.1 into the official Ubuntu repositories toward the end of August, plus adding in the IBM Open Client Solution (essentially a Notes client) around the same time. It’s a somewhat small first step, but hopefully it’ll open the door to more down the road.
I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs in a United departure lounge wondering how I got roped into this business trip. Before I had a kid I used to love to travel, but now I basically regard travel as a huge hassle that’s almost never worth the delayed flights (weather in Boston), shoddy customer service (you get the impression the airlines would be happier if we all stopped flying), security that is a theater of the absurd (watch out, he’s got 5 oz of toothpaste!), and guilt from leaving my wife to handle our daughter all by herself. And did I mention the meetings starting at 6 AM because the East Coast can’t get a real time zone?
The joy of modern travel indeed.
One of the fun things about being a Kindle owner is that Amazon (well, technically publishers through Amazon) makes free books available. Tor made a bunch available last month, and since I like Sci Fi I snapped (most of) them up. I’ve made it through the first one, Old Man’s War, and I must say I’m pleasantly surprised. The plot owes an obvious debt to Starship Troopers, but the whole old-soldiers-get-young-bodies-before-fighting-aliens was a new angle. Scalzi didn’t really have anything deep to say about the human condition, but for a light summertime read it was highly enjoyable. Now I just hope the others in the batch Tor gave away are as fun.
When Kate and I lived in Seattle we used to occasionally walk along the waterfront from downtown up around to west Queen Anne and then Queen Anne itself. At the end of the downtown waterfront there was this empty lot that always seemed like a tremendous waste of space.
Well, in the time since we left Seattle has finally down something with it: they turned it into a sculpture garden. Definitely an improvement; I like what they’ve done.
One of the things I initially found a little strange about Seattle is that is has a thriving Irish scene (it must be the climate; it bears more than a passing resemblance to Ireland’s). Regardless of the reason, I remember heading into the city as an MSR intern way back in ’98 to hit the Owl ‘N Thistle or Kells for a pint of Guinness and some good Irish music. I was glad to see that they’re both still there.
We met up with Jules and Jess and their kids Ian and Adam at the Pacific Science Center. Anna thought the science center great fun, particularly since she’s exhausted all the exhibits at the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose. She particularly enjoyed the water cannon they have outside for the kids to play with (including targets for them to aim at).
Whenever I ride the Seattle monorail I thinknof the Simpsons episode where they build a monorail that goes nowhere. Although the Seattle monorail is a handyvway to get to the Seattle Center from downtown. And Anna thought it was like being on a flying train.
Although there are nice things about our huge, modern Borders and Barnes & Nobles, I still think my ideal bookstore is more on the lines of Elliot Bay Books. Shelf upon shelf upon shelf of books, wooden floors that squeak and creak as you walk, knowledgable staff always ready with a recommendation, and an amazing selection. When we lived in Seattle I could easily spend well over an hour just browsing around.
Although I enjoy the convenience of my Kindle, I hope that places like Eliott Bay Books continue to thrive as the way we read evolves.
Good spices are essential to good cooking. When we lived in Seattle and did our shopping at Pike Place Market, we would get our spices from a little store near the market named World Spice Merchants. Little did we realize how good we had it; since moving away we’ve never found a place as good. Alton Brown even visited on the spices episode of Good Eats…
Kate still gets some our spices from there (gotta love the Internet). And we couldn’t resist the chance to visit again when in town (although Anna found the scents a bit overwhelming).
The first time I visited Seattle I was walking around Pike Place Market and was drawn into this little French bakery by the irresistable swell wafting out the doors (I’m still convinced they have fans in back blowing it out). I had the best pain au chocolate I’ve ever had outside of France, so every time I return I make sure to visit. This time we brought our daughter. In her words, “Yum!”
jeff pierce 