Upward they look: again and yet again

Comes the loud crash of thunder, and between

A cloud that frets the firmamental plain,

With bright, red flash amid the sky serene,

The glitter of resounding arms is seen.

All tremble; but Æneas hails the sign

Long-promised. "Ask not," he exclaims, "what mean

These prodigies and portents; they are mine.

Me great Olympus calls; I hear the voice divine.

The Aeneid of Virgil

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. --- Buddha

amidabuddha.org - Daily Meditation

Get Spook Country.

Read chapter 20; it ends with the above quote.

Read chapter 29:

Not just hot [Szechuan], but correctly, expertly seasoned.  Hot like when they brought you a plate of lemon slices, to suck on as needed, to partially neutralize the burn.  It has been a long time since Milgrim had had food like that.  It had been a long time since he'd eaten a meal that had provided any memorable pleasure at all.  The Chinese he was most familiar with these days was along the lines of the stepped-on Cantonese they brought him at the laundry on Lafayette, but just now he was recalling that sensation, strangely delightful, of drinking cold water on top of serious pepper-burn -- how the water filled your mouth entirely, but somehow without touching it, like a molecule-thick silver membrane of Chinese antimatter, like a spell, some magic insulation.

I love William Gibson.

I need to find the exact quote, but I once read something like:

"We are so advanced that we can spend the resources to make movies.  Even more amazing, we are so advanced that we can make bad movies."

This quote summarizes my thoughts around Cloverfield.

I really want to check out this program (I live in Outlook these days).

You can help me get access by click on the below icon/button.

They have some sort of referral program (which I think is interesting) that can get you access to the beta quicker.

The above quote is from Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.

I was discussing looking into the abyss with a hyper-smart person the other day (although they are so modest, I doubt that they would acknowledge it).

I said I saw "creation" in the abyss.  They said they saw "resignation".

Tonight I saw resignation as well (long story).

My immediate thought was self-pity, then I recalled:

Examine the lives of the best and most fruitful people and peoples and ask yourselves whether a tree that is supposed to grow to a proud height can dispense with bad weather and storms; whether misfortune and external resistance, some kinds of hatred, jealousy, stubbornness, mistrust, hardness, avarice, and violence do not belong among the favourable conditions without which any great growth even of virtue is scarcely possible. The poison of which weaker natures perish strengthens the strong -- nor do they call it poison.

-- Nietzsche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gay_Science)

Nietzsche and wine will do wonders...

"Our theories of the eternal are as valuable as are those which a chick which has not broken its way through its shell might form of the outside world." -- Buddha

http://www.amidabuddha.org/news/05Jan2008.html

"Play your part in the comedy, but don't identify yourself with your role!" - Wei Wu Wei

http://www.amidabuddha.org/news/04Jan2008.html

In this month's Seattle Magazine, Knute Berger states in his Gray Matters: Just Say None article:

Newspaper and magazine columnist (and founder of Microsoft’s Slate magazine) Michael Kinsley says that Ayn Rand is popular at Microsoft. She was an atheist who originated the philosophy of Objectivism and touted the virtues of selfishness and dog-eat-dog competition. No wonder she’s the darling of Redmond’s chosen.

This certainly applies to me, although I don't ask, "What would Ayn Rand do?.  Rather, I ask, "What would John Galt do?"

Interestingly enough, I also consider myself a Buddhist and those are not contradictory at all (check your premises).

Lastly, John Galt ≈ Zarathustra (at least to me) which is another reason that I am fan of Ayn Rand.

BTW: if you are fan of Atlas Shrugged, you should really check out the perfect union of John Galt & Ragnar Danneskjold in the character of Hagbard Celine within the Illiminatus! Trilogy.

For the second year in a row, I jumped into Lake Washington for New Year's. 

This year, I got to do a 5k run at the same time.

My posts about our team looking to hire experts in these fields has generated a lot of interest, especially the post about "Emacs.Net".

If you sent me email (either to inquire about a job or offering to alpha/beta test), thank you.

As soon as I get a chance over the break, I'll go through them en mass and get back to everyone.

Many of the emails and trackback postings that I saw asked some specific questions that I will answer below for everyone's benefit:

1. Are these positions full-time?  Yes.
2. Are these positions based in the U.S.?  Yes, although for the right person, we will consider remote.  That said, I only have one person working remotely today -- Chris Sells.  He is both the right person and he is only 3 hours away as the car speeds up I-5.
3. Are these positions based in Redmond?  See above.
4. What's the salary?  We are looking for senior people with industry experience designing & building languages, compilers and tools.  We know what it takes to attract people like that and we will pay it.

There were just as many questions about exactly what we are building that I am not going to answer.

If we do our jobs, you should be hearing more about it in October or if you get a job with us, you can find out more about much sooner.