IMO

On Monday (August 29th), my wife Eileen and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, I was away on business that day, so we weren't able to share the day, but the distance did make me appreciate just how lucky we have been. A lot of our friends got married around the same time, and although most are still together, a few have separated and divorced. And of those still together, a few are either unhappy or simply "existing." Both Eileen and I realize how fortunate we have been, but we also realize that it took, and still takes, work. Especially when you have kids, it's easy to grow apart as a couple, as you are so busy with taking care of them, or driving them to sports or clubs, or helping with school work, etc... Then, you get to the stage when it's just the two of you, and you wonder who that stranger is who is living with you. One key is, I think, that we take time out for each other. Even if it's just grabbing a quick dinner (just the 2 of us) out at our favorite bar-and-grill every week or so. Another key is that we talk... we really talk. Next year is a real milestone: 20 years. We're already started talking about what to do and where to go, and have been getting recommendations from friends. And then 30 and 40 and...

I find it sad, and even embarrassing, that's there even any debate on whether "intelligent" design should be taught. How anyone can think that it's even a mildy scientific "theory" is anyone's guess. Now I'm not knocking religion. Heck, I happen to firmly believe that about 2000 years ago, a Man rose from the dead after 3 days, which defies logic and common sense. That's why it's called faith. But I don't claim my religious beliefs as science. Einstein saw God in the beauty and elegance of the physical and natural laws that encompass our universe. Evolution, and the theory of natural selection, follows this elegant pattern. Personally, I'm more in awe of a God who could weave a reality that allows this all to occur, than one who would just "poof" stuff into existence.

Usually I'm on the "helping" side of communities; you know, the side where they provide the help or "support". I forgot how it is to be on the other side; how cool it is when you ask a community for some help, and there is an outpouring of it. An ISP in Malaysia had a temporary path leak, causing my ip block and others within the AT&T network to be misdirected to their address space (they were a mistaken preferred route at various locations). Anyway, I tried the normal procedure to get their contact info, but it wasn't panning out. I sent an email to the nanog list and some APNIC lists requesting contact info, and within minutes I had exactly what I needed, and within minutes of that, the ISP contacted me. And within a half-an-hour, the problem was solved. All due to helpful communities. Special thanks to Will, Bill and Joshua, and especially to Muhawira Muhamed from Telekom Malaysia Berhad.

During my OSCON talk, I tried to stress that in addition to the pure "mechanical" nature of what it takes to build a skill set to use OSS, there is also the cultural aspect; the basics of collabortive development. The ability for a single project to span a large community, both in numbers and in distance. On a somewhat different topic (although this will all tie in soon enough), over the weekend Eileen and I were driving to the store with our middle son Tim, and I needed to stop off and get gas. When I got back in the car, I mentioned that it was the 1st time I ever had to pay $2.50 for a gallon of gas. Tim asked if I thought gas prices were ever going to go down, and I said that I didn't. That we'll see it continue to rise, maybe slow, maybe fast, but always up. "Wow," he said, "I wonder how much it will cost when I start going to work (he's 13)." I mentioned that, IMO, what we'll see is a huge shift in how people work; no longer will we see people commuting back and forth to offices. It will be too expensive and too wasteful. Telecommuting will grow and expand... And then it hit me, in a way it never did before. All the lessons learned from OSS, as far as distributed collaborative development, will be directly applicable to that cultural shift. There has been so much effort and discussion regarding how OSS-style development will "revolutionize" software development (all correct, of course), but that is so restrictive and limiting. We are paving the way for the way the world will work globally in the not too distant future. Collaborative communities and a sense of peer-review in a truly distributed virtual sense will become the rule, and not the exception; it will be how all "business" is done, not just software development. And the mechanisms by which all this is done, will be based on what we are doing today. That's a helluva legacy.

I got back from OSCON late yesterday after having flown out there on Wednesday, so it was basically 2 days of flying for 1 day of conference. On the way back, I regretted not being able to have come in earlier or leave later; the show was that good, and it was (as always) great reconnecting with people (one of the disadvantages on being on the east coast). I got a lot of congrats from people on my accepting the CTO position @ Covalent. My session went well, although I was somewhat "stuck" with doing the more dry, bullet-listed type of information in our panel discussion. Brian was able to spend his time focusing on some key points that I was simple able to just touch upon. But I think overall it was good. I also spent quite a bit of time, between attending sessions, meeting with reporters and analysts. But no doubt the coolest was my meeting with Paul Hudson, of Linux Format UK. A great interview (although I had wished we had had more time to chat) plus some pretty funky pictures as well. I had learned later on, after I went back to the hotel and changed, that Paul and Joby (his photographer) wanted some additional snaps, so I pulled on my ApacheCon shirt and headed down to the lobby where Joby snapped several of me talking to a chair, and then we went outside for a few action shots. It was, however, strange talking about *myself* rather than a project, or company, or movement. Anyway, it's nice being back home, even if it is 95degF and humid.