in some shady attempt to promote the illusion that i've updated twice in as many days, i'm posting the following extract from a conversation that i had on AIM with a coworker. i'd like to think that it's both an interesting and informative discussion about free software. this conversation is released under the GFDL.

BenCo**us (11:23:13 AM): Blogger is fucked up. you can't just download the source. it's strange.
BenCo**us (11:23:23 AM): i don't trust it!
MrCoffeemonk (11:23:42 AM): oh, its proprietary. it's one guy trying to make money… not open source…
BenCo**us (11:24:02 AM): well, it is "free"… free as in beer. not as in speech
MrCoffeemonk (11:24:57 AM): wow, i'm not sure exactly how to interpret that statement…
BenCo**us (11:26:00 AM): that's the quintessential "free software" statement. Software can be "Free as In Beer" meaning it doesn't cost you anything to get the software, but "Free as In Speech" means you are allowed to get the code, and use it as you wish, as long as you note who originally said it. (or wrote it)
BenCo**us (11:26:26 AM): for instance, Blogger is "Free as In Beer", but since you don't get the source, it isn't "Free as In Speech"
BenCo**us (11:26:38 AM): it's a little confusing at first. it took me a while.
MrCoffeemonk (11:27:19 AM): ah… i think i'm at least partially getting it… the only thing that's tripping me up is the "as in beer" part, seeing as most beer, unfortunately, isn't free.
BenCo**us (11:27:27 AM): yeah.
MrCoffeemonk (11:27:31 AM): oh, what a world we'd live in if beer were free.
BenCo**us (11:27:32 AM): it's strange.
BenCo**us (11:28:23 AM): http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
BenCo**us (11:28:29 AM): the first line sums it up.
BenCo**us (11:28:44 AM): Free Software means liberty, not price
MrCoffeemonk (11:30:00 AM): ahha.
BenCo**us (11:30:15 AM): for instance, Microsoft gives away their source to certain vendors. It is "Free Beer", because you can't modify, redistribute, etc, etc. it. It's like "Source Under Glass"
MrCoffeemonk (11:30:44 AM): oh. yeah. now i'm getting it…
MrCoffeemonk (11:31:11 AM): that's actually a really good erm… analogy.
BenCo**us (11:32:21 AM): meanwhile, Microsoft has termed that "Shared Source". And if by "Shared" you mean "Viewable", then yes. It's almost like saying, "Oh, I'll share my pudding cup with you, friend" and then waving in front of your friend's face, so they can smell, see, pray HEAR the pudding, but they can't eat it.
MrCoffeemonk (11:34:31 AM): right. pudding withholding bastards.
BenCo**us (11:34:35 AM): hehe
MrCoffeemonk (11:34:58 AM): not that, really, i'd even WANT to have software based on Microsoft code, mind you.
BenCo**us (11:35:15 AM): well, it'd be nice to see. i guess.
MrCoffeemonk (11:35:51 AM): i would rather have the freedom to destroy all copies and traces of microsoft code in existence, since they'll only end up confusing the coders who have genuine skill and ability.
BenCo**us (11:36:19 AM): i think a big concern of theirs is security holes. Like, for instance, i'm working on a content management system called Kludge-o. I'm a little worried that when i release this thing into the wild, any old body could find a security hole. but then that fear will make me design a more secure application.
MrCoffeemonk (11:37:02 AM): it's a valid concern. there are more "hackers" out there, just looking for something to do, and some way to "prove" themselves.
MrCoffeemonk (11:37:35 AM): but yeah, the awareness of that will help you watch for potential holes.
BenCo**us (11:37:49 AM): true. i think that there were actually more security notices regarding Linux last year than NT, but that's because the Linux code is open.
BenCo**us (11:38:09 AM): and the Linux holes have been fixed. NT's unknown holes haven't
MrCoffeemonk (11:38:59 AM): i imagine it must be difficult tracking those things though. i've often wondered just how crazy it must be to have thousands of people working on the same piece of software.
BenCo**us (11:39:18 AM): well, "thousands" is a little exaggerated.
BenCo**us (11:39:48 AM): while there may be thousands of contributors, there is usually a limited number of people who determine what goes in, what stays out.
MrCoffeemonk (11:40:19 AM): did you ever, in elementary school, do the thing where the teacher gave you a photocopy of a drawing that was overlaid with a grid, and a sheet of paper, and told you to reproduce on your paper the image that was inside one square of that grid?
BenCo**us (11:40:45 AM): Linus Torvalds is the BDFL (Benevolent Dictator for Life) for the Linux kernel, and he ultimately decides.
MrCoffeemonk (11:40:46 AM): then, when all the individual pieces of paper were taped to the wall, they never quite matched up…?
BenCo**us (11:41:02 AM): uh. yeah
BenCo**us (11:41:08 AM): i think we did do that.
BenCo**us (11:41:26 AM): or a version
MrCoffeemonk (11:41:36 AM): it reminds me of the "open source" method of software development in a way… or at least my perception of it.
BenCo**us (11:41:47 AM): yeah. you could think of it that way
MrCoffeemonk (11:41:53 AM): there are going to be places where the image doesn't quite match up.
BenCo**us (11:42:05 AM): true, but the outcome of that code is what matters.
BenCo**us (11:42:26 AM): the overall effect of the picture, from a distance, is the same.
MrCoffeemonk (11:42:45 AM): true. and if you have a controlling body, then they can go over the drawing in the places where it doesn't quite match up, and make it match better.
MrCoffeemonk (11:42:59 AM): plug the holes, so to speak.
BenCo**us (11:43:46 AM): an interesting piece of reading is Eric S. Raymond's "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", it explains it nicely. in the "Bazaar" there are many contributors, and the folks in the cathedral choose what they want from the bazaar, and make product from those selections.
MrCoffeemonk (11:45:02 AM): the cathedral, therefore would be either the Linux distributors, or the individual end users… i'm assuming.
MrCoffeemonk (11:47:11 AM): admittedly i've never really attempted to install or use linux, so my view from the outside sees it as being this potentially very confusing thing. so many different versions of things that do the same thing… how do you pick the pieces you want or need, how do you pick the best apples for your apple pie?
BenCo**us (11:49:34 AM): well, that is what the distributor is for. Red Hat chooses the applications which are bundled with their distro. often, they will bundle more than one application that does the same thing
BenCo**us (11:49:59 AM): like mail transfer agents. there is Qmail, Postfix, Sendmail, etc, etc.
BenCo**us (11:50:31 AM): it can be a little confusing, but i think that it is more natural. Exchange Server shouldn't be your ONLY choice. Survival of the fittest.

it's comics day, so i gotta post this real quick before i head out the door.

this little flash animation is pretty kick ass, if you'll pardon the pun. haven't had time to poke around to find any other goodies on the site, but rest-assured, i will.

ok, now it's geek time.

alright, now that the internet's working, our servers are up, and i've gotten some free time, i'll finally write the post-Amiga-convention update you've all been waiting for.

of course, paul pretty much covered the majority of it already, but i suppose i have a few things to add.

the drive up was thankfully uneventful, though we did have to stop a few times for strong coffee. as we came into St. Louis, we started following the directions we'd gotten from mapquest.com. We pulled off I-270, and saw in front and off to the right of our exit ramp, the hotel that i was pretty sure was the one in which we'd be staying. despite the hotel's location, the driving directions said to turn left. we followed it left, right, up a big hill, and to the right again, where we came to the literal end-of-the-line. a big metal guard-rail was spanning the abrupt end of the road we were on, looking out over I-270. we cracked a few jokes about mapquest trying to heighten the sense of adventure for travelers, and i suggested that it was possible, if he built up enough speed, we might be able to make it over 6 lanes of divided expressway and the banks on either side to land in the parking lot that sittingly off in the hazy distance. he decided not to put alice (his car) up to that test, as she'd just had a hard day of driving and needed a rest.

at the convention, we found the typical assortment of rather large, mustache wearing, long stringy-haired people… the types of people you'd expect to find at a star trek convention. in fact, these people and their fanaticism are partly why i've never bothered to go to a meeting of the local Amiga user group. i had my fill of those types during my tenure as president of the star trek fan club in Murray. (ooh, there's a good bit of history for ya.) now, looking around on the web after the convention, i'd managed to locate a few images of the people there who were "out-there" enough for paul & i to actually give them names. unfortunately, amiga.org has been overwhelmed by visitors searching for show news and have been shut down by their hosting company for exceeding their transfer limits. after more searching, i was finally able to find a pic or two of capeboy. as soon as amiga.org comes back, i'll introduce you to funnypants guy and amiga grrl, and maybe the amiga girl we actually thought was fairly attractive, but who, of course, neither one of us talked to.

also, as paul stated, we spent the majority of saturday drinking the free beer, walking around the exhibit hall floor making fun of 85% of the people there. oh, and of course, there were the several hours i spent drunkenly struggling over whether or not to purchase that almost $300 worth of equipment, or to save my money and be able to eat this week. well, i ended up stalling long enough to not have to make that decision, so i purchased almost $100 worth of software as a consolation — not like i could go to an Amiga convention and come back empty handed!

so, day one saw paul & i drunk for the majority of the day, and one the free beer ran out, we went to the bar next door to "top off."

day two was a little more laid back, considering paul's difficulty recovering from the previous day's sleep-deprived drunkenness, and the return of his cold. we decided (for paul's sake) not to stay for the entire day of the conference, partly because he wasn't feeling well, partly because he wanted to get home to watch x-files, and partly because we'd already seen everything in the exhibit hall at least 20 times the day before. i went to a couple more seminars, and stalled my purchase until around 2:30 or 3, then we took off for home.

ok, well, this has gone on too long. suffice it to say, i had an enjoyable weekend, and i really appreciate puffin offering his services as chauffer and body-guard for the trip.

and finally, in reference to the whole spider-girl thing, marvel announced today that spider-girl will NOT be canceled. so, if you guys actually wrote in at my prompting, i'd just like to say thanks, you've helped save one of my favorite books.

(links added by me)

joliciel: Did you try that link that I mentioned on my site?
coffeemonk: the france one?
coffeemonk: the samurai pizza cats one?
joliciel: yeah. That one.
joliciel: did you like it?
coffeemonk: i suppose. never really watched that show, though, when it was on.
joliciel: I know, but it's so kitschy. It reminds me of you.
coffeemonk: i'm kitschy?
coffeemonk: i'm fond of "something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality" ???
coffeemonk: what kind of opinion do you have of me?
joliciel: Hey.
joliciel: I didn't even read that part.
coffeemonk: didn't even read what part?
joliciel: I've just seen bits and pieces of the show at some points and it reminds me of things like:
joliciel: that puppet show thing.
joliciel: And thundercats.
joliciel: "something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality" ???
coffeemonk: (that's a defnition of kitsch from merriam-webster.)
joliciel: OH>
coffeemonk: the puppet show thing is neither low-brow, popular, or poor quality.
joliciel: Well, ok. don't get huffy.
coffeemonk: i'm not. i'm just kind of playing that way.
joliciel: And don't look up the meaning to huffy.
coffeemonk: heh.
joliciel: Anyway, for me kitsch means something that appeals to a sort of quirky taste.
coffeemonk: ah.
joliciel: Maybe leaning back toward an earlier time, like 20 to 30 years ago.
joliciel: It's like avocado colors for the kitchen.
joliciel: and lava lamps
joliciel: and that sock puppet thing.
coffeemonk: oooh. i do like lava lamps.

well, just got back from dinner with my father. he picked the Irish Rover, which was great for me, since it's probably my absolute favorite restaurant of all those on the list. overall, it was a good dinner (the food was excellent, as usual), even though we did get the evil waitress from hell. to be honest, i'm surprised she's still working there, she obviously hates it. she was much better this time out, but then again, how could she have been any worse? needless to say, we got out of there before the whole paying the bill / leaving a tip thing came up. but i did get a particular pleasure out of relating the entire story (minus the fact of paul & brian's drunkenness during the events) to my dad, since it at least gave us something to talk about… which leads me to my next observation…

i am too much like my father. i think, all these years, i've blamed my almost morbid quietude in social situations on the fact that the majority of my friends in high school were people who loved to hear themselves talk. i was the kid who could almost never get a word in edgewise. but now, after hanging with my dad this evening, i'm beginning to think it may simply be paternal emulation. getting a conversation started with my dad tonight was like pulling teeth.

me:  "uh. so, uh. how's things?"

how's things!? what the hell kind of question is that to ask your father? and, of course, my father's response:

him: "oh… good. y'know." (or something along those lines)

me:  "… … cool."

<< side note: paul just called me out last night on the phone. he pointed out that i almost always answer any statement or question with just one word — "cool." (in a kind of dull monotone) > >

well, after several false starts, we did hit a few almost good conversations in there, the main one being when he informed me that, when i was four and the family was planning to move to Kentucky, my primary apprehension about the move was… indians. yep, indians, i was apparently afraid that Kentucky, that vague forest-land was teeming with wild, violent, Daniel Boone, Bill Custer at Little Big Horn type indians. and really, i think this is possibly the most important thing my father has ever told me since i moved out of the house and went to college, because, get this, my earliest memory of a childhood dream was about indians attacking our house and the little old lady who gave my sister and i milk and cookies.

well, now i think i understand that dream a little better. obviously it was some kind of anxiety dream about moving to Kentucky.

another conversation we got on was the life decisions issue. it kind of saddened me to hear that there are several things in my dad's life that he sometimes wishes he'd done differently. the only one he specifically mentioned was moving to Princeton. i can't help but wonder if some of the others have anything to do with me. as i've told several of my friends when we've gotten on similar topics, there is only one thing i really regret in my life–the horrible way i mishandled the breakup with the girl who i seem to be mentioning quite a bit lately. that whole situation is probably the only thing i'd go back and change if given a chance.

altogether, i guess it was one of the better father/son hang-out sessions we've had, despite the absurd conversational difficulties. probably the best part was that i got to take him to dinner. normally, he pays for dinner, then slips me a twenty before he leaves. this time, i paid for dinner, and he didn't slip me the twenty… it was liberating, and it just felt good.

in other family news, my sister has been so completely enthralled by the wondrous adventure that is bipolar, she had to go and start her own little weblog. at this point, i've given her a couple days to get into the groove, so go check it out. she's currently living in france, so perhaps she'll be able to expose us all to a little culture… or at least teach us how to say dirty words in french. oh, and that's multi – literate, not mult – illiterate or some such. she's quite the intellectual.

damn. two longish posts in one day… what's up with that?

alright, i've been reading erasing.org for several months now, on a mostly daily basis, and i just now clicked the Sadness link. such a simple concept, replacing words in corporate slogans with the word sadness. simple, profound (in spots), and so much the story of my life (at times).

so, i got an email from since he's been reading, he's not really finding anything out about my life, but about the other useless crap i've felt compelled to fill these pages with for the past few posts.

i figured he would have liked the "holy grail" post, but then he's heard about her enough times, it's old news to him. i figured he would have liked my "year in review" post since i provided a brief roadmap to some of the more important points of my life that have occurred since the inception of this blog.

but he's right. with the exception of the "holy grail" post, everything else has pretty much just been filler.

so, i've been busy at work, at least until a week ago, when the frantic activity suddenly came to a grinding halt due to the fact that no one could seem to get me the remaining three pieces of content that i needed to complete the new corvus site (on which, btw, are welcome).

in my home life, i've been busy cataloging my comics, now that brian and i are helping beta-test OmniComics and catching up on email. i've now got five emails in my inbox at home, compared to the 25 that were sitting in there for a few weeks. i've been trying to refine my focus a little, concentrate on certain projects, see them through to completion… y'know, the way it should be done. like the puffin i tend to get 15 or 20 projects going at the same time, and just never finish them. when i think about all the things i've got "waiting in the wings" i just feel kind of hopeless and lost. so, it's been good to finish the email project, to be near completion on the comics project, (and yes, i'm still working on the bipolar redesign project, which is… uhm… kinda close).

overall, i can't say i'm really happy, but i'm not really depressed either. i'm just kind of… here. and i don't know, maybe that's even worse than the other two.

ah, don't worry 'bout li'l ol' me though, i'll be fine.

here's an excerpt from an email i just wrote my dad, that i thought might be of interest to… whoever. basically, this is a brief list of some local restaurants i like, with little one-line descriptions.

  "…maybe you'd like to take a jaunt down to Frankfort Ave, there're some great restaurants in that area. Let me think of some of the options:

Irish Rover : Good Good Good Irish food.
Kim's : awesome oriental
Grape Leaf : great greek
Genny's Diner : greasy spoon, tasty heart-attacks on plates. oh, and they have "frickled pickles," which are awesome breaded deep-fried pickles.
Clifton's Pizza : pretty standard non-chain pizza restaurant (good pizza).

on the Bardstown Rd. tip, there's:

Twig & Leaf : another diner, greasy spoon, they're "tops in food" (according to their slogan) and famous on these pages for the ever popular "Louisville Paul (Hot) Brown" and the cheesy twig taters.
ZA's : pretty standard non-chain pizza place (good calzones).
Bristol : pretty standard non-chain chain "fancy" restaurant
Ramsis : great little place with really good multi-ethnic food
Skyline Chili : cheap, tasty, fast-food spaghetti
LaBambas : cheap burritos as big as your head
Dittos : quality non-chain relative of Applebees or Fridays

and, that's it. like i said, it's a limited list of stuff i just took a few moments to think about. but, for you out-of-towners, any one of these restaurants is worth visiting if you're in town for more than 30 minutes.

i've just spent the past 15 minutes or so laughing my ass off at the witticisms of our president-"elect."

probably the funniest one i read, until i had to quit before my head exploded:

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."?LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000

read more bushisms, just put the glass down first.

yet again, i've let more than a week slip by without a post. i think i've been too grouchy lately for the people i hang out with to chastise me for it too harshly. up til today, i've had my head either buried in work, been playing "timsplitters", entering my comic book collection into my recently restored OmniComics database, or trying to re-start the reorganization of my personal life (ie. cleaning the hell out of my room).

i did get one email from nathan demanding that i update soon, since he finally went to the trouble of adding me to his AvantGo client on his Visor handheld. (hi nate)

which reminds me, a while back, we added some code to our pages to make them "AvantGo friendly." if you use AvantGo, and you'd (for some reason) like to be able to read us on your handheld, just use the following links:

for brian's blog, use /bipolar/blog.html
for my blog, use /bipolar/mlog.html
(just a note, if you try to load these links in anything other than AvantGo, you'll be redirected to our frameset, so you can see bipolar in all it's black skull-festooned glory.)
if users of any other handheld browser software want this ability or are having trouble getting the pages to load, just send me a note, and i'll see if i can make it work.

hrm. well, i just attempted to create an AvantGo "channel" for us here, but it would seem that if we get more than 5,000 subscribers, we'll have to pay $5,000. not that this is ever going to happen, but i don't want to open a $5,000 can of worms, no matter what the odds.
so, while we're not an official channel, you can still download us to your heart's content just by adding us to your download (or channel) list.

in other news, after three weeks of torturous work, i've been sitting on my ass here at work ALL DAY waiting for three paragraphs of content and some revised images for the project i've been working on. it's bad enough we had to push back the original deadline a week, but now we're so close and i've not been able to do a damned thing because i'm waiting for content. grrr. but, hopefully we'll have the new site up in the next day or so and i'll put in a link so you can see what i've been working on so diligently (before today, anyway).

in other other news,
this Salon article brings the whole technical virgin thing into better focus. it's now been upgraded (in my opinion) from the status of "funny joke site" into the realm of "pointed social satire." i never thought people could actually be crazy enough to believe that only "traditional sex" is "real" sex. apparently i was wrong.

4:32 still waiting for content.

just found this interview with mark arm — you remember, that guy i drove 6 hours to a little dive in chicago to go see? — anyway, read this and you'll understand part of the reason mark arm is my favorite rock'n'roll frontman of all time.
i mean, aside from the fact that he just simply fucking rocks, that is.