Finnish her!

I'm on a Finnish language mailing list these days which has proven to be helpful in finding some rather hard to find resources for learning the language. It's a low traffic list and I had to chuckle at the following poem submitted to the list this morning since I, no doubt, will be in the same boat very soon :)

FINNISH LESSON

The nouns, like ladies of the night,
Modify rear ends to signify
Approach or departure or the height
Above, or on, where they lie
To do their work. The verbs decline
With even regularity, although
With very little sign
"P"s transform to "v"s, or go
Somewhere else. They disappear.
While "k"s and "t"s in other ways
Dull down to "d"s or, it's clear,
Like spectres moving into days,
Are gone in toto from perception.
"We" is "me" and "they" is "he"
And woe is me in this direction.
I'm grateful that it seems to be
That Finns can easily distinguish
That speech with me is best in English.

permalink Ω 27 August 2002, Helsinki

...swimmin' pools, moovee stars

Salon has a provocative article on the DSSA today, Buy Linux. It's the Law, detailing the attempt to make Open Source a legislated and mandated by law "standard". I am aghast that the silent majority of people who actually write code and create what these public and attention-seeking talking heads are going on about would allow this travesty to continue. I find it amusing that the irony is lost on those who are hoping this comes to pass and terrified to think of what will come should they succeed in doing so.

While Tim O'Reilly put a polite spin on the whole circus I have but one question: Are you people out of your fucking minds?! Laws don't make you free, they make you an obedient servant to the hive. And software is only a tiny percentage of the actual cost of computing, just think of the billions of dollars of training and support the State of California will need in order to make this transition. I would almost be willing to bet that those who are the most eager to see this legislation pass have their eyes on the training and support cash pipeline.

I and every other entity should have the right to choose whatever software we think will serve us best even if it is, by popular and professional opinion, an inferior or poor choice. People would be ready to march on Washington if this were Microsoft so why aren't people similarly incensed by this ludicrous attempt to scam the public into thinking that it will save government money and make information be free when it will, in reality, cost them far more. It is a lie borne of an ideal which will fail and should be rejected.

I'm not a religious person but maybe I'll rub my lucky Sun Enterprise server key in hope that the quiet ones, the people who do most of the work, the people who avoid the spotlight and license skirmishes will get pissed off at the arrogance and the politics which are being weilded in the name of 'freedom' and fight back before it becomes 'hypocrite source'.

And remember, the nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.

permalink Ω 27 August 2002, Helsinki

Cycling never looked so sexy

In my web surfing ennui at work the other day I found Bicycle Wire, a daily bike news blog which seems to have a nice selection of items for bike commuters and advocates. Bicycle Retailer also carries news about recalls and other bike industry news that is sometimes interesting and useful.

permalink Ω 26 August 2002, Helsinki

A different DOS

After a long period of watching and waiting the Supreme Beings of Leisure have finally rewarded us with Divine Operating System to be released on 10 September. Any group who can do groovy dance music with a sitar is, at the very least, innovative and Geri Soriano-Lightwood's voice is as gorgeous as she is :)

permalink Ω 26 August 2002, Helsinki

How to boil water

The little OS X application Watson has a new plug-in for epicurious recipes and when I looked at the 'most popular' it was quite amusing to see Salted water for boiling at the top of the list. I'm not terribly good in the kitchen but I never needed a recipe for boiling water....

permalink Ω 26 August 2002, Helsinki

Novel Eco

If you enjoy Umberto Eco's fiction in addition to his works on semiotics and language then you'll be happy to hear that he has a new novel due out in October, Baudolino.

permalink Ω 26 August 2002, Helsinki

You're Ad Here

I have an enormous forehead and I've often considered selling it as ad space but some guy has apparently beat me to it by selling his forehead space on eBay.

Associated Press
Aug. 01, 2002 08:15:00

DE WITT, Iowa — Jeff Swanson is really using his head to make money.

Swanson, 39, is offering to let an advertiser tattoo his head for $100,000.

He listed his offer twice on the Internet auction site eBay and says at least one person has already called to express interest.

I thought if the right person saw it and they had that kind of money, they might try to do it, maybe to get some publicity for themselves, said Swanson, who hangs hollow metal doors for a Davenport company.

The tattoo, which he would expose for a year, would be a first for the father of four young boys, who said he could invest part of the money for his children's college education.

Maybe this is a new way to get corporate sponsors for Perl 6 development....:)

permalink Ω 4 August 2002, Helsinki