Jonathan Hitchcock - Vhata Vas Hyah

Everybody else has mentioned this furore. Here's my take.

For the facts on what is going on, check out what Russell and Guy have said on the matter. They have both done excellent detective work and written it up very well.

For my part, what is most interesting about this is the part that we, as small-time bloggers and interested geeks, have had. Dominic has a similar take - the blogger is gaining credibility, and taking on a role that, while not the same as that of a journalist, has a similar position in society. Nobody else has done much in the way of investigations, or if they have, they haven't done anything with their results. Already, the blogosphere has started linking to Russell's writeup, and people are using it as the source for their discussions.

I'll be interested to see what happens.

(For more examples of bloggers gaining credibility, see this article in the New York Times about bloggers being given press passes to the Democratic Party's conference thingy.)

I got my confirmation-of-receipt from the SATNAC dude, today. In effect this means:

1. email is a viable method of communication
2. I can read basic instructions on a website that tell me how to submit a paper

No more, no less.

Now we wait to see whether it was actually accepted

Corrections made, title re-thought out, paper submitted.

Very tired.

I shall collapse for an afternoon and then write up an idea I've had this evening.

Soylent Red:

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/07/18/russian_scientists_t.html

Since my paper was eight pages long, and I'm submitting it as a Work In Progress (even though it's basically finished), and WIP papers are only supposed to be two pages long, I've had to more or less rewrite it.  I've finally finished it, and sent it off to Alf for a read, we'll see what he says.

An article on the Register about the proliferation of blogs, and an excellent (if badly spelled) Wired article about Hacktivism and the Cult of the Dead Cow.

With 8000 new bloggers every day, and almost half of the blogs out there being idle for the last three months, what does that say about blogging as a "phenomenon"? I know that I've started about three or four blogs myself - this current one being the most successful attempt so far. I suppose time will tell?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/13/8000_bloggers_per_day/

The Cult of the Dead Cow recently turned 20 years old, and have managed to turn themselves from a l33t bunch of hax0rs who churn out scriptkiddie tools into a well-respected grass-roots activism organisation. Restecp:
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,64193-2,00.html

Well, I finished my paper.

And Alf liked it so much that now he wants me to change my thesis topic?!


My paper was about a user interface I wrote for Jason's software PBX.  I used Flash as the main frontend, but it needed a number of ways to communicate with the actual PBX - it needed to do database lookups, and all sorts of things.  Since Flash is not that powerful a language, I used what it had, and plugged it into my own scripts, written in more powerful languages - PHP, Python, Perl, and so on.

Apparently, when I write about my open source languages, and their benefits, and why I chose them, and the scripts I wrote in them, my writing is "much more mature" and "focussed". Possibly because I actually give a damn about it.  Anyway, because of this, Alfredo wants me to do my thesis on something like "wrapping a core system in user-friendly interfaces using open source tools", or some similar topic.  Frankly, it doesn't sound much like a Masters thesis to me, but we'll have to see.

Anyway, the paper is completed.  It was way too long, and now I have to slim it down substantially before I submit it, but the main slog is over.

I'm supposed to be writing up the work I did on Jason's software PBX, and it's going very very slowly.

Apparently this paper is supposed to be a work-in-progress paper, which would mean that it is two pages long.  I'm on the sixth page, and nowhere near finished yet.  I had troubles with phrasing things at first - I couldn't get into the flow.  Now I'm in the flow, I don't know how much to write.  I could just keep writing for as long as you want, really - I could go in depth about Python/Twisted, and why event-based architectures are good for what I'm using them for, I could justify Perl and PHP for the uses I put them to, I could write thirty pages on this.

How much am I supposed to write?

Alfredo is getting antsy about this paper - he wants it in, understandably.  He has informed me that he is not going to give me my money until I hand it in.  Well, I want to hand it in as much as the next person.  I'm just so tired the whole time.  I'm exhausted now, I could really just collapse into bed.  What would make me feel even better is a nice cold beer and then a collapse-into-bed - the stress of tutoring RUMEP students who don't know how to use a mouse, combined with trying to remember everything else that has been going on is not doing me any good.

I'm basically going to just write as much as I think is sufficient for all the headings I've got, and hand it to him.  If he wants me to flesh it out, or summarise it, then I will.  For now, let me just get it done.

Festival week is now over, and I am absolutely exhausted. Everybody who was here has left now - Jaco and Adeline and Claire, Bridget and Claire, Ross and Claire, the Squash people (one of whom was probably called Claire), etc. I still haven't finished my paper, but I'm getting closer and closer to it. Maybe I'll be able to get some sleep soon?


Another festival has come and gone. I didn't do much festival-wise - I basically went to things that other people invited me to. Giselle, the ballet, with Ingrid, was good, although not as good as Swan Lake last year, I thought. I did see some truly excellent Jazz, Carlo Mombelli on the bass, Marcus Wyatt on the trumpet. I also watched Prime Circle live, which was entertaining. I almost watched the Springbok Nude Girls - arguably South Africa's best band, whom I've been keen to see ever since I stupidly didn't watch them in my first year - but at the last moment, Bridget told me that she was tired after the trip, and wouldn't be going out, so I sold my ticket to Claire-from-Capetown, and went to spend some time with Bridget.

Jaco and Adeline were down for the week. It was great to meet Jaco after knowing of him, and then knowing him, online - he really is an awesome guy, and incredibly bright. It's nice to have connections with various IT people around South Africa, but he's good to have as a friend too. Adeline is a friend of his from Cape Town, who occasionally appears on Lagnet, and she came down with him. It was fantastic to meet her, too: she's incredibly fun, and bright, and all-round good company. Claire is her over-exuberant friend, also from Cape Town, and, while a little scary, also fun.

Bridget left early this morning, having gone to bed at about half-past six yesterday evening. I was a little surprised, and rather disappointed, that she should just disappear so early - she phoned me to say "tired, sick, going to bed, see you next term". She wouldn't even let me go round to say goodbye. Puellae hostes sunt. Ah, well, I know what she's like when she's sick/tired, I don't blame her for throwing in the towel early.

My various digsmates are doing the shift-change, too - some leaving, some arriving back. Jess's brother Ross, and his girlfriend (also Claire), have left, too.

So, all is quietening down - schoolsfest is happening, but that's it. Ingrid has gone to Pretoria, Dave has gone to Knysna, Tim has gone back to Ladybrand (via Zimbabwe?) - it's just cliff, Russell and I left.

I am still tutoring the RUMEP people - it's exhausting, but quite rewarding when they understand something. It finishes on Thursday, praise the Lawd. By then, I will have finished this gawdamn paper, too, and I can relax a little.

Various articles (some most excellent) about America, freedom, and lack thereof...

Some links to free literature - one scifi novel, one Neil Gaiman novella, and one fairly amusing book.

A story about how Open Source makes you give birth to horses...

And stuff about privacy.

America:

"Patriotism (and shame) on the Fourth of July."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/04/EDGD56N5O81.DTL

How fares American liberty on their independence day, 2004?
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/010555.shtml#010555

The continued scandal about the Patriot missiles (designed to automatically select baddie targets and kill them, but took out various friendly targets too):
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/06/patriot_plot_thickens/

"America's war with Blogistan": Blogs are entering the mainstream of accepted media, and becoming the political tools that all other media is:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,64113,00.html

The poor besieged movie industry, so damaged by such rife piracy, has made record earnings yet again:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/06/1828221

Fiction

My Tokyo Death Cult is the story of the end of the twentieth century and the birth of a new era where you no longer have to be a superpower to end the world.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mytokyodeathcult/

Dr Lewis B. Turndevelt's Big Book of Forewords:
http://www.davidrperry.com/

A short story by Neil Gaiman, "A Study in Emerald", awarded "Best Novelette" in the Locus awards, and nominated for a Hugo:
http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive/StudyinEmerald.asp

Open Source and Privacy

Surfers urged to stop using Internet Explorer, and switch to Firefox.  The funny thing about the second article is that it is published on MSN.  However, it does imply that the only reason Firefox is more secure is because nobody uses it, so nobody wants to hack it.  A bit of a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing, but still.
http://www.newsisfree.com/iclick/i,43317286,7221,f/
http://slate.msn.com/id/2103152/

The 2004 Big Brother privacy awards:
http://www.theregister.com/2004/07/05/privacy_awards/

Open Source software makes you give birth to horses:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/06/sourcenext_horse/