WUSB for me, please

Wireless USB seems very cool and I hope it will show up in products very soon. Based on ultra-wideband radio, the first version will run at 480 MB/second at distances up to 10 meters. So not a one:one replacement for 802.11 but easily able to support home networks that span TVs and stereos in addition to PCs and printers. Yowsa!

[via Slashdot, where the commentary is not as excited...]

This week's movie: Rabbit-Proof Fence

In the bad days, which in Australia meants before 1970, the Australian government dealt with the Aboriginal population in ways analagous to how Americans treated Native Americans. That is, they were not considered fully human nor really capable of caring for themselves and making proper choices in life. I'm sure the previous sentences are an extreme understatement but from my understanding, one cannot deny that both are shameful situations which fortunately have changed in both countries.

Rabbit-Proof Fence deals with one aspect of how Aboriginal folks were denied freedom. Another historical artifact of the post-World War I period Down Under was the construction of a huge fence in the Western part of the country that stretched coast to coast from north to south to keep some nasty, voracious rabbits out of ranching lands, hence the name of this movie, which is set in 1931.

Three young half Aboriginal/half white girls, ages 8, 10 and 14, two sisters and a cousin whose fathers were white men working on the fence, are unceremoniously removed from their mothers' care and shipped over a thousand miles away to a school so they can be trained for a life of servitude to whites and married off to whites to, in two generations, eliminate any traces of Aboriginal blood. Or so thinks A.O. Neville (played well by Kenneth Branaugh), government minister and protector of the less-than-people. But the girls are not willing to accept this future and quickly escape; the bulk of the film is their travel, on foot, with no money and barely any concept of the route home.

Director Phillip Noyce, an Australian better known for such big Hollywood films as Clear and Present Danger, Sliver and The Bone Collector, took a big chance and used his clout to make an undoubtedly important film, based on a true story as put down by the oldest girl's granddaughter. Now "based on a true story" is often the kiss of death for a movie but not in this instance. Noyce and screenwriter Christine Olsen did a superb job using striking visuals of the spare Aussie landscape, very little dialog (much in the girls' language, with English subtitles) and amazing body language brought out from the girls.

Adding to the film is a spare, emotional score by Peter Gabriel, which employs native instruments and melodies. Christopher Doyle did an excellent job of cinematography.

definitely recommended

Today's funny email

I quote exactly for your entertainment:

Hi William,

Don't know if you ended up with any Google stock out of the deal where Pyra sold to Google. I am actively working to buy stock from current and former Google employees.

We have a legal contract authored by one of the lead legal firms in Palo Alto.

It allows us to pay you now for stock which would get transferred to us after a liquidity event occurs. In addition the agreement allows you to participate on the upside of the stocks appreciation after an IPO.

If you are interested in getting money now for your stock, please contact me.

To save the author embarrasment and me any potential harassment I will leave the writer's name and info off this post. However, I cannot imagine anyone stupid enough to take a deal like this unless they are desparate for money (for which there are probably better solutions) or the offer is a lot higher than I can imagine it is.

Buddy Rich, drum god

RoboSapien, 'nuff said.

The goings on in the City

I've been trying to think of the right words for my opinion on Gavin Newsom's campaign of civil disobedience for days now. This MetaFilter thread, between the comments and the pictures and articles linked, does a pretty good job. Essentially, I see the whole thing boiling down to equal protection under the law versus religion-based opinions and in that fight the former wins by a knockout. And while the struggles have major differences, the 1967 Supreme Court decision that once and for all outlawed so-called miscegenation in America seems just as applicable here. To the 50 or 60% of Americans who pollsters report do not believe that gay marriage ought to legal, consider the operative verb in that sentence (here, I'll help you out: believe) and get over yourselves.

Slashdot seems to have slashdotted themselves today with a link to fellow OSDN site NewsForge and their article Infinium Labs 'initiates legal action' against game news site.

TurnTide: a very interesting, proactive approach to keeping spam off a network.

Social networking

Tonight was this month's JHTC meeting, our first at the deluxe new offices of law firm Fenwick & West in beautiful downtown Mountain View. Our speaker was the legendary Reid Hoffman, co-founder of PayPal and, more relevant, social networking service provider LinkedIn. A very interesting presentation filled with insight based on real numbers derived from LinkedIn's usage; he's also an engaging speaker who really connected with the audience, answering tough questions easily with good humor. I so want to work for this guy!

Compare and Contrast

One reads the NY Times this morning and wonders...

• Colorado Puts Football Coach on Leave
  
  
• Scientists Say Administration Distorts Facts
  
  
• Advocacy Groups Allowed to Raise Unlimited Funds
  
  
• A City Combs Madam's 'Black Book' for the Names It Knows

Are we not men? We are Devo!

Bushinations: Disturbed

Bush is disturbed by the ongoing issuance of marriage licenses to same sex couples in San Francisco. I realize these marriages are a terrible imposition to the Stupidator all the way in D.C. but dude, what the fuck? Your office releases a report on jobs so filled with bullshit even you can't keep the gorge down long enough to sell it. Your own office, dude! Let's consider the priorities of your job again, this time a little more carefully, and then you tell me which problems the President of the United States ought to be focusing his energy and attention on. M'kay?

Three Degrees of Kerry Zavagnin: MLS gets its own version of the Kevin Bacon game

Man, the skies were grey, dark and threatening all morning, barely a hint of blue off somewhere, but not until just now did the rain start coming down. And when I say coming down, I mean like in big buckets of little invisible man in the sky piss with a supersized side order of windy. Like the old Snoopy world's worst story opening sentence: "It was a dark and stormy night..." except that it's only 3:20 in the afternoon here.

SUNW: Solaris 10 approaches

Book review: The Secret Life of Bees

Not a book I would have picked up independently but one my mother gave TS1 when we were visiting last month and Vivian read it so uncharacteristically quickly, essentially consuming it during our crosscountry flight, that I figured a read was indicated. And so it was, as I enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees despite the complete lack of anything resembling science, science fiction, or thriller material.

TSLoB is the story of the summer of 1964 of Lily, a 14 year old girl down South. Author Sue Monk Kidd herself grew up in a small southern town during that period and uses the racial tension (this is just after LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act into law) as a major source of dramatic conflict. But the bigger conflict, if mostly unstated, is the relationship between the girl and her single parent father as even after 10 years have gone by the two cannot get past the accidental death of the mother/wife.

Actually, the story itself held little interest for me as I simply could not connect with the characters, something I find necessary, but Kidd did an excellent job in bringing an interesting set of characters to life with vivid, sharp imagery and dialog that truly sounds real and not just exposition between quotation marks. Lovely writing, in other words, that kept my attention even though the plot did not.

That I finished this novel on the same day I finally watched Ghost World is an interesting if unintentional coincidence. The two protagonists have little commonality--GW's Enid could hardly be more different than Lily--and they face very different problems (although both are missing mothers) in very different situations. Yet both fictions have a similar appeal in their exceptional use of dialog and imagery to convey the creators' thoughts.

recommended

Bushinations: This is what I'm talking about

I have at times found myself in conversations with people who don't understand the core behaviours which I find so objectionable about our current ruling elite. An article in today's Times, Inquiry Focuses on Group DeLay Created, is an excellent example so I'm blogging it for future reference. Or to end any question this group may have as to just where my sentiments lie for future investigations.

Today's movie: Ghost World

Some films are moving and involving, drawing you into their own small world and Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World is one of those. Thora Birch and Scarlett Johannson are lifelong girlfriends who graduate from an LA high school as the story begins. Birch is completely lost in the world, adrift from even her one good friend, her single parent father and eventually even from the complete dork (an excellent Steve Buscemi) she meets and befriends him after playing for a fool. A single summer's slice of life wherein a young woman must awaken from the slumber of school yet filled with some complex emotional interactions and vivid visual imagery.

recommended

Liverpool 1, Portsmouth 1

Man, I am sooo more than ready for Milan Baros to get back on the field for the Reds! Despite what some articles suggested, he didn't play in today's FA Cup meeting but I sure hope this next week off will be it and next Sunday will see his return to action (note: clubs are off this midweek as the European national sides play friendlies to begin their Euro2004 warmup campaigns).

Michael Owen may have scored his 150th goal for the club but that was barely into the second minute and then 'Pool went 90 minutes without getting closer to the back of the net than the crossbar despite dominating the play and possession. A clean sheet would have been lovely but one cannot blame the keeper when he limits the (bottom dwelling) opposition to one score! In a quirk of the schedule, the same two teams were to have matched up next Saturday for a regular season clash and therefore with the replay three consecutive times but that game appears to have been postponed in favor of the replay to be held Sunday.

Mel Gibson is claiming that his new film about Jesus is not anti-semitic, nor is he, but then again how many bigots will actually come out an say, with or without qualification, that they are one?

Working the hunt

One of the reasons for the slenderish postings lately has been my involvement in a job search group called ProMatch; I've also had a lingering cold which has been sapping my energy but I'm hopeful that the effects of it are at an end. ProMatch is the Silicon Valley chapter of a California state government program called Experience Unlimited, sponsored by the California Employment Development (EDD)--the people who also send out the unemployment checks--and the NOVA Workforce Investment Board.

My understanding is that ProMatch is one of the most successful such organizations and from what I've seen so far, in about 10 days of involvement, the assertions very possible true. The group is essentially self-run, with guidance and oversight from perhaps a half dozen state employees, and limited at any one time to about 250 people, explaining the wait of about 10 weeks from the day I signed up until a spot came available for me. Activity is focused on two things: preparing one for interviews (and how to find them) and providing support for and during the process.

The part of the program focused on enabling one's job search consists largely of classes on interviewing, resume writing, networking (social, not computer!), facilitating meetings and negotiating. So far I've taken the Facilitations I class, mostly because it was the only class with available space that fit my schedule last week, and found it to be reasonably informative. The other side of the coin is that because the group is run by members, each person must participate by volunteering some time. One can work on either the Training and Development department, which has several teams that each puts on one set of classes, or the Ops department, which is responsible for the facilities and organizational meetings. Based on suggestions from others regarding a shortcoming which may be impacting my job hunt, I've joined the Interviews team and this coming week will work as an observer for the Interviews 3: Telephone Interviewing class and also attend the Interviews I: Essentials class.

One of the fundamental components of the ProMatch system is the development of PSRs for each member. PSR is yet another TLA that stands for problems, solutions and results and means identifying and communicating concrete examples of their work accomplishments both in resumes and interviews; this was a concept new to me but one of those things which, when you hear it, makes you want to slap your head for not thinking of it sooner. Say you were previously working as a project manager at a manufacturing company and in one project you identified an opportunity to streamline a production process, developed the new process and implemented it, saving the company over $250,000 per year; the PSR would be a succinct, 60-90 second way to tell this story in an interview and a matching bullet item to include in a resume.

Another facet of ProMatch is the sponsorship of success teams, although sponsorship is perhaps a bit too strong of a word, perhaps encouragement of participation would be better. In any case, to get started in the group you must attend the Fundamentals workshop (which gets one onto the waiting list for active membership) and during this class the facilitator helps people divide up into teams of (usually) 8-12 based on geography and the teams then meet weekly to function as a system for mutual support and encouragement; because the teams are only informally associated with ProMatch people can begine with them immediately, independent of the waiting list.

My team, which currently has about 10 members, spends our get-togther going around the table with each person detailing their search-related efforts of the previous week and plans for the coming one; the others offer suggestions and generally kibbitz and/or tease. We started back in October and so far three members have found full time work, a fourth has a major consulting gig and a fifth is one of the final two contenders for a high-profile product management position.

Beyond the classes and meetings, the group also offers special events, one on one career counseling (with paid staffers generally) and communication with group alumni as well as current members through a moderated, reasonably active mailing list. So far this month, as of Thursday's general meeting where such things are announced, 16 members have found and accepted new full time positions and graduated. One of them is my nextdoor neighbor (congratulations, Dikram!) who starts a technical sales position at Tyco this week.