I've had a few ideas for writing: * managing for technical people * project managment * gardening * chicken tending That probably adds up to: * how to be a serial hobbiest I don't know. This is probably something that I actually know about. Maybe i'll just mix myself a drink and enjoy my day off.
Monthly Archives: December 2007
december coder’s bash – thanks, sam
I made it out for the last hour or so of the December Coder’s Bash last night. The first thing I noticed was how many people were there! At least 50 were still hanging out at 9:15pm on a Tuesday night.
They were chatting and playing games — Settlers of Catan, some kind of card game, something involving bean bags. And, of course, there was programming shop-talk. I got to talk about embedded systems with Matt, tried to beg some help with a Drupal installation from part of the PostgreSQL crew, and started to decompress a little from the ERP migration I just completed on Monday.
And there were a ton of women! My unofficial assessment was that about 15% of the group were women.
Portland is so awesome.
I want to thank Sam Keen for putting this together. I know that a lot of other people were involved, but he was the guy sending out the email, contacting us user group leaders and getting sponsorships. Sam, you really did a great job.
no one belongs here more than you
Don't know if you've heard of Miranda July, but I thought her new site was pretty neat. == â— No One Belongs Here More Than You == http://www.kottke.org/07/04/no-one-belongs-here-more-than-you (from kottke.org) Miranda July, who you might remember from her film Me and You and Everyone We Know, has a book coming out in May, a collection of stories called No One Belongs Here More Than You. The book has a web site that's one of the most effective and creative I've seen in a long time. Here's a screenshot of one of my favorite pages, just to give you a taste: Continue reading
nice nytimes article about a business
A Corner Deli with International Appeal http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/business/smallbusiness/03zingerman.html?ei=5090&en=8ffda96a63afa3a2&ex=1335844800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1178731475-WoFVZHbhY5WXSRjFkn0nCQ
“Our goal in 2020 is to leave our world better than it was when we came here,†he said.
Originally saw at:
http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/zingermans_a_ci.html
What I was most taken with, however, is that that Saginaw and Wienzweig have grown this business by focusing in the quality of their products and service, and on treating their employees very well, and treating profit as a secondary goal.
Technorati Tags: 2020vision, business, morale, nytimes, quality, sustainability
delightful sportswear
scappoose school district to take on vernonia students
Last night, the Scappoose School District sent out a press release announcing that Scappoose High School be accepting the students from Vernonia. From the press release:
Just moments after students completed their final exams on Thursday, December 6th, Sue Hays, the Scappoose High School principal, asked the entire student body and staff if they were up for one more challenge. The response was a resounding “Yes!†Unofficially dubbed “The Vernonia Project†around the SHS halls, this grassroots effort between the Vernonia Schools and SHS was the idea of students and staff concerned with how to help their friends and neighbors. In less than 24 hours, the effort has been approved and is underway to host the 6th through 12th graders from Vernonia left without books, supplies and classrooms as a result of the recent flood damage.
Vernonia students will start coming to the Scappoose High School on December 11th. Staff expected the relocation would last 4-5 weeks, but an exact end-date has not been specified.
Scappoose High, in conjunction with Scappoose Fire Station Share & Care Program, is also holding a fundraiser for the Scappoose & Vernonia Food Bank, collecting cash and non-perishable food donations to help restock the Bank’s pantry. All proceeds from the next three home basketball games will be donated to the Food Bank.
Hands On Greater Portland posts disaster response volunteer opportunities
Hands On Greater Portland has posted disaster response volunteer opportunities on their site. The partner programs are Victim Volunteer Services (Vernonia and Columbia County) as well as the American Red Cross.
The Red Cross is looking for folks to show up tomorrow morning (12/7/2007) at 8am. See the Hands On site for details. Vernonia Victim Volunteer Services is also looking for folks to just show up at their space across the street from Vernonia City Hall.
Hands On will likely be coordinating a few projects in the weeks to come. If you have some time this weekend, however, just head out to either of the locations mentioned on the Hands On website.
IPCC's mitigation report
== Highlights of the IPCC's mitigation report == http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/grist/gristmill/~3/114411036/75161 (from Gristmill) I want to highlight a few points from the IPCC's Mitigation Report (PDF). First, even the most stringent global greenhouse gas targets can be met at a cost of a mere 0.1% of GDP per year! While the report is not explicit about when action should be taken, it does say that: In order to stabilize the concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere, emissions would need to peak and decline thereafter. The lower the stabilization level, the more quickly this peak and decline would need to occur. The Center for American Progress and I have encouraged stabilizing atmospheric CO2 concentration at 450 ppm and/or a temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius over the pre-industrial era. That said, according to one of the report's charts (see page 22), reductions aimed to cut emissions 85% by 2050 must be initiated before 2015. And maybe sooner. According to the IPCC: Decision-making about the appropriate level of global mitigation over time involves an iterative risk management process that includes mitigation and adaptation, taking into account actual and avoided climate change damages, co-benefits, sustainability, equity, and attitudes to risk. … if the damage cost curve increases steeply, or contains non-linearities (e.g. vulnerability thresholds or even small probabilities of catastrophic events), earlier and more stringent mitigation is economically justified. Tucked into footnote 37 of the report, there's a brief discussion of feedbacks that could certainly, and dangerously, be categorized as a non-linear, vulnerable threshold to which we are blind. The message of the report is clear. Countries must act, and soon. We can choose to stabilize the climate and still maintain prosperous economies. But we must make a financial commitment that just hasn't materialized. We've been going backwards. The IPCC reports: Government funding in real absolute terms for most energy research programmes has been flat or declining for nearly two decades (even after the UNFCCC came into force) and is now about half of the 1980 level. At this point, that is unacceptable. The policies the IPCC has recommended have great potential and low cost. The world needs make the political and economic commitments to curb emissions. The time to act is now. This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Technorati Tags: blog, change, efficiency, environmentalism, studies, research, sustainability
eat local and “foodmilesâ€
Another article about food and transportation costs… AskPablo: Foodmiles http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/askpablo-foodmiles-002478.php
I used a cost study from UC Davis to determine the energy input versus the yield. I arrived at roughly 4.85 kg of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent units) for each kg of cherries. If we assume 500 km of transportation by semi we add 0.06 kg CO2e, or about 1.2%. If the same cherries are grown in Argentina and flown to the US (21,000 km) the emissions jump to 16.82 kg CO2e per kg of cherries, or 71.1%. Quite a difference! It is possible that the cherries would be shipped by container ship in a refrigerated compartment but then we would have to account for the refrigeration as well.
What if the cherries are dehydrated first and the transported by ship? Removing moisture from agricultural products is one way to cut back on transportation costs and emissions. Dried cherries have about 15% moisture content (vs. 75% in fresh cherries) so the CO2e from cultivation per kg of dried cherries will be higher, around 12.14 kg CO2e per kg of dried cherries. Trucking over 500 km would again add 0.06 kg CO2e, or 0.5%, but shipping by container ship over 25,000 km (more than air cargo because you can't ship point-to-point) contributes only 0.42 kg, or 3.3%.
Technorati Tags: blog, food, research, sustainability
philosophy of perl
From Larry Wall, creator of Perl, in 1995: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.perl.misc/msg/4ea8ddd4dfcf8a9b
* Learn it once, use it many times
You learn a natural language once and use it many times. The lesson for a language designer is that a language should be optimized for expressive power rather than for ease of learning. It's easy to learn to drive a golf cart, but it's hard to express yourself in one.
Technorati Tags: perl, philosphy, programming, larrywall