A lot of folks ask me what I am working on these days.

My answer is typically the same:  Making my mom into a programmer.

Once I say this, I get some strange looks.

Then I remind them what it was like 20 years ago to create professional quality photographs, modify them (crop, red eye, etc.) and then create a personalized photobook.

I remind them what it was like 20 years ago to create a professional quality multi-track musical recording and distribute this to a broad audience.

I remind them what it was like 20 years ago to shoot, edit, and release a quality video production.

Back in 1987, this was the domain of 'professionals' in these fields.

Today, this is the domain of anyone with iLife.

Programming as art.  Programming for my mom.  That is what I am working on.

"Doctors in China have discovered 26 sewing needles embedded in the body of a 31-year-old woman.  They think they were inserted into Luo Cuifen's body when she was a baby by grandparents upset she was not a boy."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6983435.stm

I clearly don't have all the data here, but reading this story makes me sick and reenforces (admittedly mostly on an emotional level) my personal belief in Moral Universalism, although I am a fan of the "graded absolutism" variant, which suits my pragmatism.

During this football session I am going to try to adopt the Seahawks as my "home team".

I have been following the Dallas Cowboys since I could watch TV, so this is going to be hard.

One of the benefits of being a Seahawks fan is integration with your digital life.

The Seahawks actually have an option to let you import their 2007 schedule (including channel information) into your Outlook calendar.

http://seahawks.com/gameday/gameday.aspx?id=50040

The word is that dasBlog supports Windows Live Writer by default now.

I am putting the 'word' to the test right now.

Since this post is exactly as information-free as any other of my posts, I just leave this one in the feed.

Updated: Works like a charm.

Today was the Microsoft company meeting.

I always attend these events and try to bring as many people as I can with me.

I'll admit that I am one of this those people that say, "Oh, Apple already does that."  or "Smalltalk did that back in 1980."

That makes me really funny at these meetings, but I am also one of those folks that really gets fired up when SteveB, BillG, or ROzzie takes the stage.

Yes, I am an Apple and SJobs fan boy (that is so popular now, I think I am going to start likely the BeOS again). 

Yes, I think that if the world just adopted Smalltalk peace would break out throughout the world. 

But with very few exceptions, Microsoft is one of the only places where you can actually (no bullshit, no bait and switch, ...) change the world.

That is why I work here, even though I am typing this on a MacBook Pro and I would rather build a house out of Zunes than carry one around.

Who knows, one of these days, my team will reinvent Smalltalk again (sooner than you think) and the world will live as one...

I just completed I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter.

The title of this post says a great deal about the subject matter and the manner in which Hofstadter approaches it.

It is a much more accessible version of GEB and far more personal.

Worth reading.

I love reading The Economist.

This past week, I read an article about electricity in Africa.  The start of the article is as follows:

SEEN from space, Africa at night is unlit—as dark as all-but empty Siberia. With nearly 1 billion people, Africa accounts for over a sixth of the world's population, but generates only 4% of global electricity. Three-quarters of that is used by South Africa, Egypt and the other countries along the north African littoral.

The thing that really drove this home for me as a picture of Africa from space at night:

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=8780295&story_id=9660077

[I was going to post something about being back to blogging (for real this time and on a full featured blogging engine), but something really drew me to post the below instead.  This is one of the most moving speeches that I have ever read.  I think I first encountered it when reading a military fiction book in my teens.  It made an impression.]

I am tired of fighting.  Our chiefs are killed.  Looking Glass is dead.  Toohulhulsote is dead.  The old men are all dead.  It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led the young men is dead.

It is cold and we have no blankets.  The little children are freezing to death.  My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food.  No one knows where they are--perhaps freezing to death. 

I want to have time to look for my children and see how many I can find.  Maybe I shall find them among the dead.
    
Hear me, my chiefs.  I am tired.  My heart is sick and sad.  From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.

Chief Joseph