Categories
Just Shelley

Experiences on not having a driver’s license

My brother Michael is 2 years older than me. As lovely as he is now, he was a Demon Child when he was young. Pure evil. Bright, intelligent, resourceful, and determined to cut a swath of destruction around him.

Among some of his earliest acts of mayhem were several related to his decision, at age 3, that it was long past time for him to drive.

Adventure 1: Mother takes brother and me into town to get a few things at the store. She knows better than to bring us into the store with her and leaves us in car (in this town, believe me, it was safe). My brother figures out how to release the emergency brake. Two parked cars and a tree later, we finally came to a stop.

Adventure 2: My father, a Washington State Highway Patrolman, is driving I and my brother home in his patrol car. Michael wanted to drive. Now! Luckily the ditch wasn’t too deep and Dad wasn’t driving too fast.

Adventure 3: Poor father again. Mother is away to the Big City for the day. Father gets a call — bad accident on the mountain. There’s no one to take brother and me so he has to take us to the accident scene. He leaves us in the car with strong descriptions of what will happen to brother if he touches anything in the car. However, Child Demon doesn’t speak English. And the patrol car has a tempting, shiny brake release lever.

This is a mountain. This is a rolling car going down a mountain. See car roll. Roll, car. Roll. See the river at the bottom of this mountain. Go car, go!

Splish splash we were taking a bath, long about about a Saturday night…
No, no. It’s okay. We hit a tree just before going into the river.

One year. Three cars. One demon child. And one cute little helpless baby (Me) along for the ride…

Categories
Technology

Doc Searls on OS X

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Doc Searls:

OS X must be a hit, because there’s a sudden backlash against it. Today Dan pointed to a couple pieces — one by Henry Norr in the Chronicle and the other by Andrew Orlowski in the Register — that both bitch-slap the UI pretty damn hard.

That’s going to keep me chuckling all day.

P.S. You tell em Doc. I think OS X is one of the most innovative products to roll down any software ramp in a long time. I wasn’t a Mac user until OS X (well, the Titanium PB helped — that sexy little thing).

Categories
Just Shelley

Old Sci-Fi

Watching movies tonight as a way to stay awake while I work. I have a deadline Monday and I can’t miss it. Then two others follow closely behind it. Looks like I need to spend less time weblogging, more time on the books. Not to mention I have a ton of corporate tax filings I need to make for year end.

Blub. Blub. Help me! Help me! I’m going down for the third time…ack…gurgle.

Quick break: I bought War of the Worlds on DVD. Yes, my secret vice is that I love old time sci-fi flicks, cheesy special effects and all. War of the World, When Worlds Collide, Them, The Thing, The Day the Earth Stood Still — what’s not to like/love? Even old Plan 9 from Outerspace has a camp quality because it’s so bad (not as bad as the War Bus, but bad).

War of the Worlds had incredible special effects for the time — and it made the transition to DVD nicely. Both movie color and sound were improved.

Remember the old sci-fi flicks? They usually had to add something about religion in order to keep the religious fanatics from boycotting them. When Worlds Collide had a nod to the religious at the end, and War of the Worlds absolutely dripped religion. Folks today can learn from this — the hicks wouldn’t burn Harry Potter books if Rowling just had Harry go to church on Sundays.

(We who are all in the wrong must bow and defer to those few who just know they are in the right.)

When are they going to make Them and The Thing on DVD? I know they’re B & W, but can you imagine the ant call on Dolby?

Categories
Legal, Laws, and Regs RDF

More on the RDF/RSS Patent fooflah

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

In case everyone’s confused with my postings about the patent issue, I want to go on record by saying that I’m strongly in favor of RDF. There. I know you were all really worried about that one. Okay now, stop worrying, go back to work.

-earlier-

Jeff Barr of Syndic8 was also a recipient of one of the infamous patent letters. He created a PatentWiki that duplicates the letter he received as well as providing other related information.

It just burns me to see people like Jeff — people who freely, openly, willingly, and gladly contribute to our technological growth –bothered with this type of legal manipulation.

More later — I’m too pissed to communicate now. Not without getting sued.

-earlier-

Dave Winer just came “out” with the information that Userland rec’d one of the patent letters.

Not surprising considering the other recipients.

-earlier-

I had a chance to read the RDF Patent letter; it’s definitely a fishing expedition. Hopefully, none of the recipients of the letter are responding to it. From what I can read, that’s exactly what the law firm is most likely looking for – responses. If I get permission, I’ll post a link to the letter here.

Personally, I’d like the ACLU to get involved in this. After all, what’s a better example of freedom of speech than open source and open standards/specifications? And what threatens said free speech more than the massive loopholes within the Patent system. Think about it.

 

Categories
Just Shelley

Experiences of a non-driver

Experiences of not having a driver’s license – II:

When I was 19 my boyfriend decided that I needed to learn how to drive. Bryan was a fanatic about cars as well as being an absolute whiz with anything that has an engine: cars, vans, boats, hydroplanes, you name it. We spent weekends either working on engines, going to Corvair car rallies, or taking the Class A stock outboard to hydroplane races in the Puget Sound. Fun times…except that I didn’t know how to drive. How can I not drive?

(Eternal questions: What is the meaning of life? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? What does SPAM really stand for? How can you not drive?)

One quiet afternoon we reached a moment of truth — Bryan had to see me drive. There was no other way to stop him harping about me driving. We grabbed his mint condition 1963 Corvair van and went for a little drive around the neighborhood.

Him: When you step on the gas, do it gradually. You don’t have to slam your foot down on the pedal.

Him: You still have to step on the pedal — we’re not going to go anywhere if you just rest your foot on the pedal.

Him: Shelley! You need to stop and look first before driving across the road! You almost creamed that car!

Him: No. No. You have the rightaway. You need to move!

Him: Don’t turn like that! You’re going to hit someone if you turn that wide!

Him: You can’t turn that sharp! This is a van, van’s don’t turn on a dime.

Him: Christ! Look out for that…! No, no, you’re okay.

Him: What are you doing? You’re too close to that …

Me: Thwap!

Him: You just hit that truck with my mirror! I can’t believe you just hit that truck! My side mirror’s gone!

End of lesson.