The Wireless Developer Blog

I have been personally accountable for the Fedora Project's budget for the past four years, and in that time I have tracked every penny that the Fedora Project has spent on community building worldwide, travel for contributors, marketing, etc.

After much long consideration, I have determined what would be for me the optimal process for these matters.

(1) At the beginning of the quarter, the budget Red Hat gives me for that quarter is handed to me in the form of a check, which is deposited into a separate bank account used for nothing but Fedora.

(2) Cards that can draw from that account are created, and handed to trusted members of the community worldwide. We also have the ability to do direct bank transfers in order to pay bills, etc.

(3) We all work together to get people, goods, etc. in the right place at the right time, so that the Fedora Project can do everything that it needs to do.

(4) At the end of the quarter, I produce a pile of receipts. The total of those receipts, plus any unspent money, should equal the original amount given at the beginning of the quarter. I justify the manner in which the money was spent, and demonstrate how it all provides value back to the Fedora Project.

If everything is acceptable, goto (1). If there are issues, Red Hat fires me for malfeasance.

This would be so much more simple. Alas, life is not a pony farm.

http://www.altonbrown.com/adventure/where.html#csum17079

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

stupid ass carole king. making me cry on nye.

I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore. I won't post in facebook anymore.

For New Year's day my mother makes a rib roast. We never have it otherwise, but my grandmother always made one on New Year's and so it is a distinctive taste attached to one holiday only. We have it with yorkshire pudding and popovers (yes, both).

When we moved to the south in the mid '80s we learned that it was necessary to have black-eyed peas and collards on New Year's day (peas to bring coins and collards to bring folding money).

So we added peas and collards to the tradition until one year when an entire slow-cooker of collards tipped over in my car on the way over to my mother's house and my car smelled of collards until the NEXT New Year's Eve. So we've been skipping the collards ever since. Just couldn't stomach them anymore. I did try to make collard egg rolls and collard fried dumplings one year-- we were underwhelmed.

The black eyed peas have evolved into my version of Hoppin' John. Ron and I really love it and make it fairly often-- it's cheap and filling and almost makes itself. The special thing that happens on New Year's day now is the combination of popovers and Hoppin' John. If you take a fresh hot popover, split it and spread it with a little butter, and then fill it with Hoppin' John-- that's magic. I've been craving it since we finished Christmas dinner.

( click for recipes )

If you follow my every word with bated breath, firstly let me suggest you get out more, but secondly let me apologize for the lack of posting lately -- and specifically the lack of my traditional loot report.

Here's the list for this Christmas:

Going Rogue, by Sarah Palin.
I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist, by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek.
World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.
World Of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King.
A promise of Windows 7 Ultimate "as soon as feasible".

Also, a tremendous Christmas Eve dinner with the in-laws. Mary & Jesse cooked up a very tasty standing rib roast, on the rarer side of medium, served with baked potatoes and salad. Very nice indeed, and they sent the remains of the roast home with us, which was nice.

As a joint birthday/Christmas present for Kathy, we got a laptop, with a carrying case and a cable lock. In exchange, I'm getting her desktop PC to set up as a media center / games machine in the den (I'm thinking that Mythbuntu would be the way to go, unless further research shows otherwise). We'll be making payments on it, but that's okay, because we've only got one payment left until we've paid off the refinance loan on her car. That news, I think, might be the real treat I got this Christmas.

As 2009 and the decade come to a close, we thought it would be fun to look at our five favorite designs we've done since 2005.  While we've only been doing this on a part-time basis until now, we've done some memorable cakes for clients and friends.  In this short little serialized list (and who doesn't like lists?) we've compiled a neat little rundown on the story behind each of these great and tasty works of art!  Each day this week we will list our five favorite cakes of the last five years.

Read more

I have many things to write about but it's very late-- I just wanted to put a marker here for myself because we finished work on book #2. He's already started #3 and I'm excited about this one. He found his voice in #2 and developed a character who works with it-- the character is charmingly flawed but not evil-- I like the character and my author as he speaks through this character. Some of the other characters-- notably the women-- he hasn't spoken through as well.

But I digress-- #2 (the nun book) is in the can (that's movie talk I think.)

In other news-- Emma just put all of Glee on her new Ipod-- I can hear it from here.

Night.

Wayan, here's the simple fact:

The OLPC organization is built to do hardware innovation. Of the many things they've attempted, it's the one thing at which they have clearly been wildly successful. They put the fear of God into Intel and forced the worldwide introduction of the Netbook, thus driving down the median price of personal computing all over the world -- whether you choose to give them credit for that achievement or not. Their decision to focus on hardware innovation as a core competency is a good thing, not a bad thing.

Is the challenge of educating every child in the world bigger than OLPC can handle? Why, yes. Yes, it is.

There's the problem of open educational resources, which is being attacked by organizations like OER Commons and Curriki and UNESCO, and possibly even by the United States federal government. Did you know that the Hewlett Foundation actually has a logic model for the development of open educational resources, which they now apply to every organization who comes to them for requests to fund education projects?

There's the problem of open source software suitable for use by kids, which is being attacked by organizations like Sugar Labs and the KDE Education Project and GCompris and Squeak -- all of whom have successfully deployed software that is now being used by lots and lots of kids. None of these projects are perfect, but all are continually improving.

Guess what? OLPC was *bad* at these things. That's why they have, quite sensibly, left those problems for other organizations to solve. OLPC is now, and has always been, a single piece of a very large puzzle. The shrill cries that "OLPC HAS FORGOTTEN TEH KIDZ!!!!" are at best, unhelpful, and at worst, ridiculous.

So while all of the other organizations in the world work on the other sticky open education problems, let OLPC focus on the one thing they've clearly demonstrated an aptitude for: innovation to make better and cheaper hardware that is built specifically for the needs of young kids.

When you try to be everything to everybody, you end up being nothing and nobody. OLPC has learned that lesson, and I, for one, am delighted.