I was recently on TWiT.tv: FLOSS Weekly with Randal Schwartz, Jono Bacon, and Leo Laporte. Download MP3 file | Shownotes

All three of these people (and Dane) are wonderful people I thoroughly enjoy speaking (and drinking) with. 🙂

Visit the FLOSS Weekly Episode 89 show page to stream the episode in a click. You may also subscribe to the show in your preferred podcast or RSS client, which you should because it’s an awesome show.

I really enjoy podcasting. I’d like to participate regularly in a podcast(s). If any readers have a podcast that you think I would find relevant to my areas of expertise please let me know. Or if you have an idea of a podcast you would like to start, ping me about this too. I wouldn’t mind starting a new podcast if 1. it were on topics I’m interested in and 2. I didn’t have to worry about any of the infrastructure for supporting it.

MindTouchers Steve and Arne have a fantastic podcast on concurrency called: ‘Concurrent Podcast’. Here is their schedule:

Topic	Status
Lock vs. Lock-Free The good, bad and ugly of locks; how to avoid them; and when lock-free data structures might just be the ticket.	published
Why Async matters Why should you care about asynchronous programming patterns in your daily programming?	published
Coroutines in C# How to write asynchronous code in a synchronous style.  Benefits and dangers of using the iterator pattern for async methods.	published
Grand Central Dispatch Apples introduced a new paradigm for concurrent programming in OS X Snow Leopard.  Join us in this podcast to learn what it is, how it works, and how it compares to other implementations.

I encourage you to subscribe and listen to it.

From where I live in Hillcrest / Mission automobile traffic and a very steep downhill run. On the way home, which is uphill, I take 5th Hills it is just under three miles to my office, if I take a direct route. On the way to work, I commonly take a route through neighborhoods that have little Avenue near Balboa Park. 5th is a three lane, one way road. It is less steep coming up the hill and it provides a longer route for me to exercise.

Traffic in downtown San Diego is sparse. This is not San Francisco, Seattle or even Minneapolis. Traffic in San Diego is so sparse in fact it is odd to those of us who are accustomed to cities like San Francisco.

San Diego Gaslamp District at 6:30 PM on a Friday night.

Leaving from work I turn on 5th Avenue from Beech Street. I usually will bike on the sidewalk, which is illegal, for the first several blocks because that first section of 5th Avenue is busy with speeding cars getting on and off Highway 5. Moreover, there is little to no foot traffic in that area.

By the time I reach Kalmia Street, where foot traffic begins to pickup, I take to the road. When I bike on roads with no bike paths I tend to take up an entire traffic lane if there are parked cars. San Diego has very few bike lanes. By taking up a traffic lane I ensure motorists see me. This is legal. In fact, this is the only way to legally bike when there is no bike lane.

Why is it important to stay to the center of the lane taking it up entirely? It’s as simple as it is unobvious to passing motorists. When I stay to the side of the lane I risk cars pulling out from side streets and car doors opening, which then force me to skirt erratically and dangerously into traffic.

When I take up the traffic lane I can pretty much keep up with the traffic – thanks to the traffic lights. However, every day I have, at least, one road raged motorist verbally accosting me, or worse. Motorists will honk and scream obscenities at me, flash me the finger while shouting, threaten verbally to run me over and even go so far as to feint their vehicle dangerously close to me. These feints are often so close that were I to flinch and crash my bike I would be run over by them or the vehicle behind them.

One day while commuting home a motorist in a van squeezed me out of the traffic lane into a parked car while screaming profanities at me and honking. The door of the parked car opened and the only way I could avoid getting run over by the van or hitting the car door was to drop my bike. I looked up as the van drove off and it was the catering van from Cafe Zucchero, a restaurant two blocks from my office. I learned later the driver’s name is Greg. Thanks Greg. I can assure you that had you not forced me to crash I would have gotten to the next light just as fast as you.

Damien, one of my co-workers, was biking to work recently when a Police officer demanded he move out of the traffic lane over his loud speaker. A Police officer. Clearly, this fellow does not know the law. Nor do the belligerent motorists who regularly accost me. When I bike alongside them at the next traffic light after they’ve verbally assaulted me, for biking, I will inform them I am obeying the traffic laws and so too should they. Those brave enough to acknowledge my presence will usually scream at me not to take a lane and threaten me again with being run over.

Recently, I have noticed public service ads around town that state “Lose the Roaditude” and are directed at bicyclists. These instruct bicyclists to obey traffic laws. “Roaditude”? Bicyclists? I suspect these stem from the rise in popularity of Critical Mass here in San Diego. Is it any wonder Critical Mass is growing in popularity?

Where are the “Share the Road” signs? Where are the public service ads informing motorists of their obligations to bicyclists? I want to see an effort to inform motorists of bicyclists rights. There needs to be a concerted effort of City officials and Police to protect bicyclists.

I have been thinking about software convergence lately. This weekend I was visiting Big Bear, CA with my family where a cultural convergence was happening. The annual Big Bear Film Festival, a motorcycle rally and Oktoberfest all happening at the same time. What does three distinct events transpiring in a very small town create? A peculiar cultural convergence of Hollywood hipsters, motorcycle club members and rural rednecks. This peculiar convergence is not a dissimilar result from many software convergences. At least this cultural convergence is fun to watch.

I had a great time with my family. Big Bear always delivers on the promised reprieve. This trip was spontaneously arranged mid-week. Tara and I spend our Thanksgivings in Big Bear and she suggested we drive to Big Bear and find a suitable cabin for our Thanksgiving trip.

For this weekend Tara found an adorable farmhouse for rent. The owner did a fantastic job decorating the place. However, the neighborhood was less than appealing. My Facebook description of the farmhouse:

We rented a cute little farmhouse. It’s nice. Other than the shitty neighborhood replete with dick rednecks partying loudly all around us…Oh and owner said it was “near” the airport. Seriously, the runway is literally in the backyard.

Thankfully the airport in Big Bear is just a little air strip for small personal airplanes. Still, with two little ones, the airplanes coming and going were not welcome. Worse yet were the raucous parties of cursing twenty-something Caucasians that drove jacked up American made trucks that appeared as though they should be participating in a monster truck rally. These twenty-somethings also dressed as though they were lead characters in rap music videos. Yet another peculiar convergence.

We did find a cabin for our Thanksgiving trip to Big Bear. Cozy Hollow Lodges is less than a mile from the village and it has a playground. We drove by and checked it out before we left town.

I was in DC last week where I was attending a work related conference titled Gov 2.0 Summit. Before leaving home I asked Ashby, my daughter, to help mommy because Roesevelt, my son, was sick. Tara called me and told me she had been especially helpful and that Ashby had told her she was helping so much because “daddy asked me to help you because Roe is sick.” So cute. I had to pick her up something.

Before going to the airport to return home I stopped by Georgetown to buy Ashby something fun to reward her. I happened upon a shop lifter casually walking away from a shop keeper after apparently having stolen from his shop. The shop keeper attempted to stop her by insisting she stop as he followed her down the sidewalk while, I’m assuming, he hurriedly tried to reach the police on his mobile phone. She ignored his demands and continued her brisk stroll.

The shop keeper attempted to wrestle the stolen merchandise from the woman. A scuffle ensued that soon involved three women wrestling the unlucky shop keeper to the ground. It seemed they were all in cahoots. I only photographed two of the women wrestling the shopkeeper because the third actually left her one year old child, in the stroller, in the road. Albeit near the curb, but still in the road. Realizing where the kid was, sadly, kept me from photographing the dog pile on the hapless shop keeper as I was busy worrying that a car may hit the kid. 

As for Ashby, she got two hair barrettes and an Obama tshirt. She says the Obama tshirt is a boy’s shirt and she is not fond of it. She is very girly. 🙂

Anyway, Georgetown is a beautiful part of the city.

I just announced some Interesting news at the work blog. I am now advising Microsoft on open source software strategy. Microsoft? Open source? Yes. I announced my joining the advisory board of the newly minted CodePlex Foundation that was created by Microsoft last week.

CodePlex Foundation: Microsoft, an Open Source Leader? | MindTouch, Inc Blog

Last week I joined the advisory board of the newly created CodePlex Foundation, which was forged in the bowels of Microsoft. Sounds scary doesn’t it?

The foundation, a 501.c6 non-profit, endeavors to increase participation in open source community projects. The intent is to provide a framework for commercial (proprietary) software companies to more easily contribute to open source projects. Specifically, the CodePlex Foundation wishes to help resolve concerns commonly shared among commercial software companies about contributions downstream; such as implied patents, copyright, licensing, etc.

Warning: potentially annoying pontification to ensue.

I believe it is important to instill your kids with the importance of community obligation and compassion. As I wrote previously, it’s too soon to do most volunteer work, but a beach clean up is just right for a 3.5 year old. 

We had a great time. Between playing in the sand and surf we picked up trash and talked about the importance of helping others and making the community we live in a better place. Ashby responded with: “like heroes”. Exactly.

When it comes to sharing the road with cars, many people seem to assume that such accidents are usually the cyclist’s fault — a result of reckless or aggressive riding. But an analysis of police reports on 2,752 bike-car accidents in Toronto found that clumsy or inattentive driving by motorists was the cause of 90 percent of these crashes. Among the leading causes: running a stop sign or traffic light, turning into a cyclist’s path, or opening a door on a biker.

via Who Causes Cyclists’ Deaths? – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com.

I bike to and from work. When I bike on the road and use the full lane, which is the safest and my legal right, motorists often intentionally try to squeeze me into parked cars, scream obscenities at me, honk the horn in an attempt to scare me and generally behave poorly. Of course, most often I’m traveling as fast, or faster, than they are through downtown San Diego. Alas, for some reason they feel obliged to rage at me.

When I bike to the side of the road to allow cars to pass I have doors from parked cars open on me, motorists turn  in front of me and cars pull out of parking spots dangerously cutting me off.

It is illegal to bicycle on the sidewalk. Given the aforementioned circumstances I occasionally do. I always bike slowly and considerately when doing so. Even still, I’ve had pedestrians shout obscenities at me, call me names, gesticulate violently and cars almost hit me when using the crosswalk.

Cycling is not a crime. 😦

Ashby (my 3.5 year old daughter) is amazing. Of course, if you read my blog, you already know this. One aspiration I have for my daughter is that she grow up with compassion for her fellow *man. After some thought, I’ve determined one way to achieve this is by spending time with her engaged in community work.

To this end, Ashby and I will be attending the September 5th La Jolla Shores beach cleanup that is organized by the Surfrider Foundation.

Participants should meet by the main lifeguard tower. The cleanup takes place from 9am until 11am.

All volunteers are welcome to participate and must sign a liability waiver, but volunteers under 18 MUST have a parent or guardian sign the waiver before the minor can participate. (Please note the NEW waiver as of August 2009)
Click Here for the beach cleanup Waiver Form.

 

The world we live in is amazing. Life is amazing. Everything is amazing. We all should be amazed. Take the time to let yourself be amazed.

Last week I flew with my family to Florida to spend the week on the beach and visit my father and mother. We safely flew at 39,000 feet. I listened to several “How Stuff Works” podcasts on my iPod and I read a book on my Amazon Kindle 2 while holding my 6 month old son. My wife sat beside me and played with our 3.5 year old daughter Ashby. Ashby watched two movie rentals on my iPhone. We ate lunch together flying safely through the air. We flew from one coast to the other in under seven hours.

We have spent nearly every day on the beach in Daytona with my brother who drove 500 miles with his family from North Carolina. His daughters played games collaboratively on their Nintendo DS handhelds during their seven hour drive.

Every morning for the last week The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have been delivered automatically to my Kindle 2 from outer space for me to enjoy over coffee as I sit gazing at the river and watching the occasional dolphin swim by.  I’m writing this blog post using a Verizon MiFi card from my father’s couch as I upload photos to my Flickr account.

So much to be awed by. The current pace and obvious acceleration in technological innovation ensures that in only two years I’ll read this post and be marveled by how archaic some of these technologies are. Another thing is certain. I’ll also look back at this post and reminisce about how fantastic this time is and how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family.

Being a nineteen year fan of Nine Inch Nails I was thoroughly pleased to read MindTouch, the company I CEO for, included in a C|Net article about Trent Reznor’s use of an Open Core business model.

The article cites a recent post I wrote at the MindTouch blog about the MindTouch Community. The Open Core business model works well in yielding exponential growth by building and engaging community. I write about this too in an article titled: “Open Source Magic Carpet Defies Recession”.